As solar tubes rely on the availability of sunlight, there's no way to control how much light is entering your room. It largely hinges on how much sun you're getting on a given day or time of year.

Solar tube lighting does have its drawbacks. For example, when it's cloudy, the solar tubes are nonfunctional because if there's no sun, there's no light being funneled through.

Solar tubes can get a little larger, fancier and more expensive from there. A traditional light fixture can be retrofitted with a hard-wired solar tube to bring natural light in by day and shine ...