
Elgin, IL (January 5, 2007) -- At a time when rapid global climate change is no longer scientifically debatable, individuals often think they are powerless to do anything constructive to help alleviate the problem. "Not true," says Greg Miller, inventor of the SunPipe® and owner of The Sun Pipe Company, Inc.
"The biblical principal of good stewardship can have a greater impact than any other single factor," says Miller, "just like when the biblical principal of quarantine was used to control and ultimately end Europe's black plague of the 1300's. The crisis we face with global climate change is far worse than any regional black plague."
Climate change is natural and innevitable. However, the cumulative result of mankind's environmental abuse is hastening the process dramatically. From the electricity we consume from coal-burning power plants to the miles we drive in gas-burning automobiles, we, individually, are responsible for controling our energy demand and for urging our congressional members to legislate a mandatory change-over to "green" energy technologies."
Consider our use of electricity. Electric lighting accounts for 25% of all energy produced in this country. By using daylight to illuminate interior spaces, the majority of the electric lighting load could be eliminated, according to Miller. "However, if daylighting is implemented improperly, we will increase the use of air-conditioning and heating energy far more than what we will save in lighting energy."
Back in 1991, when Miller and his uncle first introduced the SunLight Pipe, his goal was to replace daytime use of electric light with day-light. There is usually a very bright sky just feet above our ceilings. If we can bring that bright, natural light indoors without increasing HVAC-Energy use, which traditional skylights are known for, and all but eliminate the need for Electric-Lighting-Energy, the product would be a huge success and save an incredible amount of energy. It worked!
What's wrong with traditional skylights?
- A 30" x 60" double-pane, gas filled skylight will cost the owner $250 per year in heating and cooling energy (national average), but, it will cost us all 600+ pounds per year of CO2 emmissions in our air.
- Skylights are also very expensive to install if they require the construction of a drywall shaft (usually over $1000).
- Skylights don't spread light throughout the room very well, often providing no more than a bright spot of light on the floor.
- Skylights will, most likely, eventually leak.
- Skylights cause a potential privacy problem.To be a success, SunPipe would need to reverse all these negatives. It does.

SunPipe's simple design.
A simple design, the highly reflective hollow pipe gets installed between the ceiling of a room and the roof above it. Daylight shines into the pipe from above the roof and reflects down the pipe to a diffuser mounted to the ceiling of the room below. According to Miller, when the daylight hits the diffuser, it glows with the equivalence of up to 900, 1500 or eve 3000 watts worth of light depending on the diameter of the SunPipe® (9", 13" and 21" respectively), the season, the time of day and the type of day (ie. cloudy or overcast).
Claim: One SunPipe-13 reduces power
plant CO2 emissions by over 600 Lbs per year.
Statistic: 60% of all SunPipe-13's are
installed into kitchens and typically replace the burning of 300
watts worth of incandescent lamps.
Assumption: One SunPipe-13 replaces 300
watts worth of electric lamps for 5 hrs./day, 5 days/week.
Energy Savings Calculation:
300 Watts X 5 Hrs/day = 1,500 Watt Hrs/day
1500 X 5 days/wk = 7500 Watt Hrs./wk
7500 X 52 wks/yr. = 390,000 watt Hrs/Yr. /1000 = 390 kWh/yr.
390 kWh / Yr. X 1.7 Lbs. CO2 / KwH = 663 Lbs CO2.
A) Coal Burning Plant:
Polution Produced
Lbs. / KwHEnergy Saved
KwH / Yr.Emissions Saved
Lbs. / Yr. / SunPipe-13Carbon dioxide (Greenhouse)
1.7 390 663 Nitrogen oxides (Smog)
0.0068 390 2.652 Sunfer dioxide (Acid Rain)
0.013 390 5.07
B) Nuclear Plant:
Polution Produced
Oz / KwHEnergy Saved
KwH / Yr.Emissions Saved
Oz / Yr.Spent Fuel (low level waste not incl.)
0.0012 390 0.468
The company claims to use 300 watts per hour energy savings per SunPipe® in the above example for the sake of conservatism. They also claim that a SunPipe® can actually save over 1000 Lbs of CO2 and over 1 Oz of nuclear waste per yr, but they didn't want the data to appear too unbelievable. Even at 600 Lbs/yr, multiply that by the thousands of SunPipes sold since 1991 and the reduction in CO2 emissions attributable to SunPipe® owners is impressive.
"Personal responsibility," says Miller, "means doing things the right way and not causing the release of unnecessary pollutants into our eco system. The typical SunPipe costs $400 to $600 installed and will prevent over 3 tons of CO2 from entering our air over the next 10 years. All this while providing healthy, natural interior illumination, far superior to any electric light in both color and intensity. It just makes good common sense to implement such technology."
Miller believes SunPipe® merits becoming a standard component of residential and industrial construction. And, since it reduces the need for electric lighting, it earns the distinctive role of being a truly "anti-global warming" product or, as Miller calls it, a "Global Cooling" product.
For further information call them toll free at 1-800-844-4786