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Illuminating Window-Less Houses With a Plastic Bottle
New submitter DancesWithWolves writes "The BBC reports on Alfredo Moser, who came up with a way of illuminating his house during the day without electricity — using nothing more than plastic bottles filled with water and a tiny bit of bleach. In the last two years his idea has spread throughout the world. It is expected to be in one million homes by early next year.'"
I've seen this type of lighting system before on old ships (USS Constitution, etc...).
Instead of a water they used glass blocks (or similar).
But, it's great to see a novel way of recycling trash into something beneficial! :)
Cheers!
"Helping to keep you two steps ahead of the Thought Police!"
Great idea and implementation... at least where you have the type of roof where it can be used. One modification I would add would be to add something to the water in order to make it just a bit cloudy... this would diffuse the light a bit more. Of course, depending on the plastic, it may cloud up as it ages in any case, or start with cloudy plastic (i.e. plastic milk bottles).
Elegant and no energy costs. It recycles something we all have handy. Easy to install also. Hard to argue with all those benefits!
I prefer filling my bottles with fireflies and shaking them.
This would be ideal for making sure the rats and squirrels in my attic have plenty of light to work with.
I remember reading about this a long time ago. Also, there was a short film about it on WIMP. Neat story, but definitely not new news.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
Check it out: http://aliteroflight.org/
You sound like an idle rich compassionless bitch.
Those flimsy plastic water/coke bottles *will* leak eventually, and ruin whatever flooring/furniture/equipment happens to be underneath them.
Makes more sense to use glass bottles, IMO.
That said, we did the exact same thing when I was a kid (decades ago) to bring some light into an old and very cluttered toolshed, which had no source of power. Seemed pretty obvious to us at the time.
Of course, we considered it a poor-mans skylight, and didn't pretend to have some magic elegant new idea. I guess if something goes viral on facebook it means you invented it.
They're completely unhackable!.
Soon they'll be mandatory in Enterprise deployments.
2*3*3*3*3*11*251
If it's already sunny and you need light but have no electricity.. Get windows or go outside.
This "elegant" solution which involves drilling holes big enough in your ceiling to glue in a plastic bottle isn't so elegant at night.
NEVER leaks, he claims, having done it for the first time 2 years ago.
Read about this and aliteroflight.org couple of months ago. A very similar idea has been used for years, sadly I cannot find an english version of this Wikipedia-article about the "Schusterkugel" (which translates to "shoemaker sphere") http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schusterkugel regards tuo
Why not get a skylight? I mean aside from price.
Alfredo Moser came up with this idea in 2002.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liter_of_Light
And was covered widely in 2011 and maybe before
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/dec/23/sunlight-bulbs-plastic-bottles-light
I read about this on SlashCOCK and let me tell you how much I made from home...
"I just heard someone on the roof. Why is it yellow in here?"
This is as old as clear plastic bottles.
to illuminating a house with no windows is . . . to add windows? Wow.
I mean, some kudos are deserved for finding an inexpensive (almost free) way to add windows, and using windows whose shape provides some refractory scattering of the incoming light. Still though, his solution to no windows was literally TO ADD WINDOWS.
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
What the fuck is this doing on slashdot?
Ohhh... right. dice bought the place... nevermind.
Yeah, after Dice bought Slashdot there have been stories on nothing but smart hardware hacks such as this one. No Slashdot user has ever been known to like a hardware hack.
Old news, I'll give you that. But it's still a nice hack.
From the article: "The lamps work best with a black cap - a film case can also be used". - Could somebody plaese explain why?
How does the color of the cap impact the lighting proprieties?
Very cheap version of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_tube
This is Slashdot, where perfect is the enemy of good.
Because there are edge use-cases where this won't work, it's completely unsuitable for ALL applications.
Or, to put it another way, because it won't work in some guy's shed in Anchorage, poor people in Africa, Asia and South America should continue to toil in the dark until a proper solution involving LEDs and / or light pipes is made available.
Now, instead let's discuss how 2014 will definitely be the year of Linux on the desktop.
Plastic bottles aren't exactly UV-stable...
Actually it's probably as old as clear glass bottles, there are mining shacks that used empty whiskey bottles for windows since they didn't have window glass (likely because they drank all the profits before winter came).
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
A window allows light to shine in but holds wind out as the etymology of the word suggests. This is a window. It's just not made from glass, nor is conventional.
It's a poor man's Solatube. However, in a hail-prevalent area like mine, I would go to the expense of a Solatube than plastic bottles.
Proverbs 21:19
Saw this some time back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buMyJPQLS9U
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
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I just bored big holes to the living room of my neighbor. The bottles are all dark as is my left eye.
1. It's not a "light bulb". It's just a cheap version of a "solartube". Again, good for poor people, but not a freaking light bulb.
2. Flawed analysis to make themselves feel good. They talk about the CO2 footprint of their "bulb" then compare it to a 50W incandescent running for 14 hours a day. First, where are they getting 14 hours a day of SUNLIGHT everyday, all year. Second, why not compare to a CFL or LED bulb? Third, it only works during the day, when light is already available.
Don't get me wrong. It's clever. It's a good way for people who are very very poor to improve their life quality. But that's all it is. They spin the concept to make it sound like people in western countries should start sticking evian bottles through their roofs and poof, no more global warming.
Instead of building stuff out of trash, why doesn't someone fire up a kick starter project to design a manufacture a low cost, long lasting purpose built equivalent.
I remember reading about this a long time ago.
Is that why the summary says: "In the last two years..."?
No sig today...
Honestly it seems that every year for the past 4 years slashdot herolds this.
Then HAD will do it in about 2 days.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Slashdot is run by out of touch idiots.
First you start with aricles on stuff that Gizmag featured days before, now this.
Why don't those worthless savages just build NORMAL houses?
I have seen this before, but not quite made with recycled bottles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deck_prism
They're called Deck Prisms, and were used on sailing ships, embedded in the decks to spread light below, but flat and therefore flush with the deck itself.
Nice to see a new and different use for old bottles.
If they were mounted bottom up, and flush, would they work as well?
What about glass bottles?
Could there be a direct comparison to the solid glass versions of the olden days?
N/t
see http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4085769&cid=44555053
I've seen this type of lighting system before on old ships (USS Constitution, etc...).
Deck prisms have been used for centuries.
DeckPrisms.com sells reproductions for decorative use and restoration. Marine supply houses sell them with frames. Fixed Portholes and Deck Prisms
OK, you're dirt poor. I get that; but why in the ceiling? Even a shack can sustain some hole-drilling in the walls. Drill a nice pattern of holes in one spot on THE WALL. Put the bottles there. You don't get a fabulous picture window, but you get light and it won't leak so easily. Yes. These WILL leak. It's just a matter of time. Shacks have cups and buckets on the floor all the time even when they aren't trying to put in cheapo skylights.
And here I was hoping for some fun chemistry. Instead we get "no electricity? Use the sun!" What if I have no sun you insensitive clod!
And this will be coming to the USA also, because they will have to jack up utility rates, just to
please the enviro-nuts in the USA.
I hate to break this to ya, Chief, but the jacking of utility rates has far less to do with "enviro-nuts" than it does greedy utility company executives.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphor#Glow-in-the-dark_toys
Just a thought; might help diffuse light in the daytime, as well as providing some light after dark.
Whether or not the materials to make such a modification are readily available in third-world countries I cannot speculate on.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Are you saying that because we've seen this for the last two years that this is somehow not news?
What happens when night falls?
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
It's a great idea, costing almost nothing to implement and light up dingy shacks and such. But I wondered if you get some sort of decent light on a nice dark full moon night? Nobody seems to have mentioned that
Nope. Older than that. Even Cretans (from ancient Crete) used them.
I remember seeing a ted-talk or something like that about this exact topic around that time.
Here in Central Oklahoma (you know, the place with EF 5 tornados...), hail the size of ping pong or golf balls is common at least once a year (frequently more often), and hailstones up to 3" is not unheard of. These will go completely through a commonly-decked roof.
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
In an article about a particular invention, I see nothing wrong with discussing what's the best area or way to apply the invention.
and installed several in my ceiling.
My mom got mad I was cutting holes in her kitchen floor. Apparently, she WANTS my only light source to be glowing LCD screens and blue LED power indicators.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
The BBC article goes all breathless about this great low-tech approach for poor third-world countries without mentioning the fact that the user has drilled a bunch of holes in their roof. Combine that with a rainy climate like the Philippines (mentioned in the article) and you've got a problem. The solution, apparently, is polyester resin. Excellent choice, and so widely available in third-world slums. No slam intended to the unfortunate residents who are also blessed with power tools.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
Using a bottle in this fashion is basically implementing a short "light pipe." The technology has been around a long time, but the water-filled-pop-bottle is the cheapest implementation I've heard of.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I have been reading slashdot for years. And apparently I missed that particular news in th epast. Sometimes, repetition is a good thing. Also once a year does not seem like an unreasonnable rate for such a news.
Tools only require power in lazy post-industrial societies. Hand tools are inexpensive, effective and less costly to operate. I've cut steel roofing with hand snips in seconds.
Polyester resin is kind of a staple product. In post-industrial societies, it's sold for recreation in craft stores. But in less developed places, it's needed for boat building and all sorts of fabrication. Before 3D printers with their costly supplies, we made molds and used resin for pennies.
I imagine they are chosing it over tar or pitch due to availability as much as any other factor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zMAWztZ6TI This guy in Brazil thought it up in 2002 during a blackout, I'm pretty sure that's more than 2 years ago. This story keeps getting recycled as writers and editors forget that they've already covered it before.
received from sun: 150 to 300W/m^2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy)
bottle ca. 0.01m^2
maximum power is 3W
What is wrong here?
Evidently the idea that the root of "news" is "new", is news to you.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Electricity companies are very heavily regulated and closely watched by the government, mostly because fools like you are always whining. Try looking at their profit margins and executive compensation before making ignorant and inflammatory posts.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
That must be so comforting to the people of Africa who live on $10 a year.
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
Wait... you mean energy companies don't have the world's highest profit margins? I somehow think that you're full of shit, mostly because of widely-published news.
Yea, you obviously don't get your power from the same privately-owned (but "publicly" operated) utility company as I do.
These assholes find any and every reason to raise rates, government regulations be damned. Last year, they informed the public that they intended to jack rates almost 10% because we didn't get enough rain. No bullshit.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
This wouldn't last one summer in my city. You would need to replace the bottles constantly, eventually opening up leaks.
Polyester resin is kind of a staple product. In post-industrial societies, it's sold for recreation in craft stores. But in less developed places, it's needed for boat building and all sorts of fabrication. Before 3D printers with their costly supplies, we made molds and used resin for pennies.
I imagine they are chosing it over tar or pitch due to availability as much as any other factor.
Or more likely that it won't melt in hot weather. Since 2kg lumps dropping from the ceiling tend to be hazardous.
Sorry, can you repeat that? I couldn't hear what you were saying over the partisan whining of someone stupid enough to think there is a quantifiable difference between Democrat and Republican politicians.