During the day, you will have an extremely bright 10" light. The light will progressively become dimmer and yellower as the sun sets.

The efficacy compared with other down lights is affected by the lens, the light source and its position within the tube.

We have a Solatube in our downstairs bath. It has a light inside it. It gives off plenty of light at night with the light on. At first I had an incandescent lamp in there, but I switched to a florescent and I still like the look of it and the light it puts out.

With the sola tube, you can chose from several diffent lenses, and we got the fancy one that kinda throws light in every direction, so choosing the lens as well as the bulb type, I would think it would be plenty of light at night.

Have had the Sola tube for probably 5 years or so, absolutely luv it. Bathroom is nice and cheerful, day or night and I'm amazed at how low the Sun gets and yet still an adequate amount of light.

HTH's

Gary

Thanks for the input.

Gary, I'm happy to hear your positive experience with the tubular skylight as well as the light inside. I just picked up a 10" ODL Tubular Skylight Kit from HD. It comes with "dual lens diffuser" whatever that means, and I hope it's bright enough. If not, they sell a clear prismatic diffuser, which might be brighter since it's so expensive!

I read that Solatube is a good name brand. But I hope the cheaper ODL will work just as well. I was glad to find that HD (online) also carry a light kit for it (much cheaper than the kit I found online earlier).