Selfsufficientish.com

This is really interesting. These people are making solar lights using a plastic bottle, mineral water and a bit of bleach. http://blogs.worldbank.org/dmblog/solar ... ight-bulbs

Ingenious idea.

However, I think the idea is for daytime lighting only. I don't think there is any claim that they provide light at night.

This is amazing.

Also it's sad that they are living in darkness during the day as well. What potential though in water and a drop of bleach. If a new container was designed and made that had a larger surface area on the roof then would it be brighter still? I wonder how it does work. Eg if the light would travel along a pipe to you could take it further from the roof?

Fascinating, thanks.

sorry to disagree. It's a crap idea if you ask me and yes I know you didn't but why go to all the hassle of making these to fix in the roofs of shanti town dwellings when it would be better to scavange a piece of glass/ plastic/ see through material to replace part of the roof.
As Keith BC says it's daylight hours only.

Well, I liked it. I've emailed the link to the clip to all the members of my department so they can use it in lessons.

Big Al wrote:sorry to disagree. It's a crap idea if you ask me and yes I know you didn't but why go to all the hassle of making these to fix in the roofs of shanti town dwellings when it would be better to scavange a piece of glass/ plastic/ see through material to replace part of the roof.
As Keith BC says it's daylight hours only.

I understand where you're coming from Al. I had also wondered if a skylight would be better, but then I thought perhaps they don't want glass because it can break, and perhaps that sort of plastic just isn't readily available and plastic bottles are. I don't know, I'm just guessing but I'm sure there'll be a good reason.

I think it's a good idea too. I can see why they don't have skylights. If you're building a shanty hut out of corrugated steel then you need a matching piece of corrugated plastic to form a skylight or else it will leak. Corrugated plastic is not so common as steel.

Crickleymal wrote:I think it's a good idea too. I can see why they don't have skylights. If you're building a shanty hut out of corrugated steel then you need a matching piece of corrugated plastic to form a skylight or else it will leak. Corrugated plastic is not so common as steel.

i guess that's true and on the whole it is better to use these than a smoky wood fire but my point is that all the materials for the shanty huts are scavanged so there must be something available that is better than the pop bottles.

Still we won't need any of it by the end of next year what with the ruskies, syrians, iranians and nato !!

I like the idea. It has something mcgiver-ish to it.

Big Al wrote:sorry to disagree. It's a crap idea if you ask me and yes I know you didn't but why go to all the hassle of making these to fix in the roofs of shanti town dwellings when it would be better to scavange a piece of glass/ plastic/ see through material to replace part of the roof.

As I understand it, the advantage of the bottle design is that it diffuses the light better inside the dwelling. Rather than creating a beam of light in bright sunshine, it will appear as a low voltage bulb. It also has the advantage of re-using a type of product that is probably available in very large volumes. Everyone can have some of these whereas glass is probably in shorter supply and might be better for windows at eye level where you want to be able to look out.

Wulf

A brilliant idea. Often the simplest ideas are the best. Not only is that scourge of the planet, plastic bottles, being put to good use, but people now have a little light for free. I guess if scraps of plastic/glass were used then there might be the possibility that they would be 'scavenged' from someone's roof once fitted. Plastic bottles are available to everyone.

We're really impressed by the idea and are about to put one in a compost toilet that we are building so that the local primary school can use a bit of our woodland as a forest school area. It is the fact that it diffuses the light and that you only need to make a small whole in the roof that is easy to seal that sells it to us. I would imagine that the fact that something as useful as clear corrugated plastic or a section of glass for a skylight would not be available that makes the idea so appealing to those who live in shanty towns.