Illuminating Window-Less Houses With a Plastic Bottle 240
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.'"
Re:Simple and zero energy cost (Score:3, Informative)
An even more elegant solution (Score:0, Informative)
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.
Re:aliteroflight.org did it first (Score:5, Informative)
Moser actually came up with the idea back in 2002 in Brazil. The "last two years" mentioned in the summary is a reference to efforts to spread the idea around the world, of which the site you mentioned is one such example. That site started about two years ago, and if you check the About page, you'll see that they credit him as the originator of the idea and mention that they are working to spread the idea in the Philippines.
Re:So the solution . . . (Score:4, Informative)
The important part is really that his idea doesn't use electricity and recycles widely available waste to provide the lighting. It also provides more light than a window the same size would, so I imagine it doesn't create as large of a structural problem.
I worked with a non-profit called Long Way Home [lwhome.org] a few years ago who I believe was doing this, along with using plastic bottles and used tires for to build a structurally sound, environmentally friendly school in Guatemala. Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of the plastic bottle lights in use but if you're interested, check out their website - they could use the exposure.
Re:Lighting on ships... (Score:2, Informative)
This is not for the typical US resident, except maybe in an old backyard shed or something. In a modern construction house (or refurb) with a moderate budget there are tons of options to do the same.
This is something for places where even a few dollars is outside of the budget. But this certainly isn't for just a few pennies.