Hi There was a pot on this subject in a Reef aquarium site Nothing is more demanding of light than coral Mostly MH are used for this purpose Expensive to buy,run and maintain. There were some fantastic pix of the setup and everything seemed to be thriving. He is using a Bank of 3 Solar tubes the kind that automaticly follow the sun. Since plants and particularly orchids require a lot less light than coral would thin the idea would work even better.?? They make so many different models of ST. with many different attachments would think they might work even better than a GH?? What he raved about was no heat gain using different filters could be throttled back to so many foot candles eliminating UV completely. This model followed the sun so always High noon but with orchids would certainly not be necessary.Though in winter and cloudy climes would think it valuable. Don't remember the total cost of the setup but when talking MH HPS and fighting with resulting heat gain and no operating costs ?? The post got over two hundred responses if interested I'll look them up? My interest was in building a Cool house for high altitude or cool growing orchids. gary

We had 3 Solatubes in our last house. We had them installed to brighten a dark living room and a windowless hall bathroom. I LOVED them. Absolutely loved them. The one in the bathroom had a light inside it so there wasn't too much stuff on the bathroom ceiling. The funniest thing was that everyone visiting would always try to turn out the light, not remembering that they hadn't turned it on and not realizing it was a skylight. Absolutely no regrets. Do expect to have to touch up the ceiling, they poked some small holes looking for where the beams were to cut the holes for them.

I live in Florida and put a few in the house. Love them! I was just thinking I'd like a small one in my walk in closet and a larger one in a hallway which is dark. I also have a laundry room without windows and was thinking that would be perfect. I put one in a powder room without windows and its perfect. Frankly, If I had the money I'd put them in ever room, closet and pantry. Jane

We first installed a solatub in the late 1980s in a bathroom in my previous home. In the 15 years that we lived with it we never had to do any maintainance to the solatube in side or out on the roof. It never leaked. We loved how much it lit up the room. We didn't need to turn on lights in the bathroom during the day like we did before installing it. When my daughter bought her house 8 years ago, we had a solatube installed in their windowless hall bathroom as a house warming gift. They love it. It even lets some light into their hallway. Their solatube has not leaked or required any maintainance at all. Last year the added a large solatube in their dark family room and also put one in another bathroom that lost its window due to an addition on the house. Solatubes are definitely less expensive than a skylight for both the product itself and the install. I know that because we replaced 27 year old skylights in our current home when we reroofed 2 years ago. They never leaked but we replaced them just due to their age. The skylights were way more expensive than the solatubes my daughter just installed. I suggest you go with the Solatube brand or the Velux brand rather than some lesser brand.