Roof lights or sun tunnels?

[Karen1808]

Hi - new to Mumsnet - hoping someone can give me some advice/opinion. We are extending our house, 2 storey on back and so this is going to make the landing in the middle of the house, very dark, as we'll be losing the windows.
Builders are asking me if we want sun tunnels or Velux type roof lights.
The depth of the roof light option would be about 90cm - so I'm worried they might look a bit ugly....? The architect's preference is sun tunnels as he thinks roof lights look ugly and collect spiders/cobwebs and harder to clean.
The builders think sun tunnels won't let enough light in! Ahhh!

Can anyone help? The landing is about 5 metres in length and about 1m wide.
Thanks

We have 2 sun tunnels in our hallway which sounds like similar dimensions to you - no window at all. They let in enough light that you never need the light on during the day, on a sunny day it's quite light in there. They are from www.lightupmyroom.co.uk and IIRC about 30cm diameter. A year on they have gained a few bugs and dust but it would only be a 5 minute job to undo the diffuser and clean them.

Our builders were sceptical but I think they had previously installed ones with a flexible foil tube rather than a straight mirrored tube which transmits a lot more light. They were impressed with the final effect.

As long as you just need light to walk around they are fine, you might struggle if you have a desk or something in your hall.