Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23536914

by kposehn • 13 years ago

204 80 13 years ago

bbc.co.uk

"The lamps work best with a black cap..." - why would that be so? Wouldn't a reflective cap work well too?

lutusp3• 13 years ago

All I can think of is that a black cap won't degrade as quickly because of ultraviolet exposure. Most plastics (long polymers) have chemical bonds that can be broken by the energy level provided by ultraviolet photons, so over time they turn from polymers into quasicrystals and lose their strength -- disintegrate. But a black plastic, by excluding the ultraviolet light, protects itself and lasts much longer.

So a bottle that's composed of a clear plastic that naturally resists ultraviolet degradation (there are several) should be capped by a more rigid plastic (to maintain its shape). So the cap needs to be black (or at least a dark color).

A reflective cap would work just as well at first, but plastics are made reflective by being painted, and the paint soon falls off, because of ... wait for it ... ultraviolet exposure.

raldi2• 13 years ago

I thought black objects absorb all wavelengths, and white objects reflect them all away.

cma• 13 years ago

In earlier articles the method I saw was using a plastic film canister over the cap, because it resists UV degradation etc.

msantos• 13 years ago

The explanation is lot simpler in practise than most comments have explained so far.

From my own experience, in lame terms, if you use non-black caps, for arguments sake let's say you use a red cap from a coca-cola bottle, that red cap will reflect some light as well as the water. And inside the room the bottle will not "shine" as bright as it could and depending on the Sun's position the room will have red'ish rays - like a rainbow.

So using any colour cap and covering the bottle cap with old photographic film containers like this one http://www.kveller.com/images/Article_images/film-canister.j... will prevent the non-black cap from stealing sun rays from the water.

julianpye• 13 years ago

True hacker, if I ever saw one.

jay_kyburz• 13 years ago

Or you could just open a window.

wyz92• 13 years ago

I think you’re not really understanding the kind of housing this is made for. Shacks in slums don’t generally have nice triple glassed windows.

eru3• 13 years ago

Yes, the alternative would be going outdoors. But in the tropics you don't want to do that during the midday sun.

throwaway4203• 13 years ago

In poorer areas, houses are sometimes made by essentially stacking up and leaning sheets of metal against a few pieces of wood, more or less. Decent windows often aren't a very viable solution. Light bulbs would be usable, but you sometimes have to get electricity (if available at all) by literally running a wire either directly to the power line or across the road and then stringing it up to the power line yourself. So your comment misses a key point about life in these countries.

palkeo• 13 years ago

Did someone told him about « windows » ?

eksith5• 13 years ago

  >Did someone told him about « windows » ?

From the article...

  "Most homes and businesses in the slums of Dhaka have no 
  power and no windows, so 80-90% of them hook up to 
  electricity lines illegally - and fall back on candles or 
  kerosene lamps during regular blackouts."

wyz92• 13 years ago

Wow, I didn’t think there’d be two comments saying this. This is about slums in Brazil and the Philippines, you should look up the conditions of the housing the people there live in. This is pretty high on the disconnection from reality scale.

etler• 13 years ago

This isn't an alternative to the light bulb. This is an alternative to the window for people living in slums that can't afford glass.

hcarvalhoalves3• 13 years ago

Probably you've never seen a slum, so let me explain:

- Houses are juxtaposed to each other, there's no room for windows

- Roofs are corrugated, so you can't easily fit a top glass panel even if you have the money for one.

- There are transparent, fiber glass roofs, and some people use those, but often they don't get to choose the materials used to build the house, just use what is available.

So this is a quite nice hack that works for most houses.

throwaway9848• 13 years ago

All those sound plausible (having never been to a favela), and if true I agree with you on almost all counts.

But it's still not a substitute for a light bulb unless it works in the dark.

reedlaw• 13 years ago

These bottles refract light thus illuminating a larger area. A skylight primarily lights the area underneath. Also, these bottles are less likely to break in a storm.

D9u3• 13 years ago

I live off-grid, and have done so for nearly 20 years, and I never needed indoor lighting during daylight hours.

I also dislike the idea of poking holes in my roof, for any reason.

I'm much more intersted in the gravity light which was featured here a few months ago.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gravitylight-lighting-for-...

Although the initial cost may be prohibitive for the poverty stricken, it may be well within the acceptable price range for many others, and the gravity light has the added bonus of not requiring any fuel, nor does it require punching holes in one's roof.

(I live in an upland rainforest)

Klinky• 13 years ago

Lights are used indoors all day long in much of the world. If you don't like poking holes in your roof, then you probably don't like sun windows either.

The gravity light requires manual labor to produce light, has moving parts that are more likely to fail, is more costly, and produces less light.

duskwuff• 13 years ago

The gravity light produces a shamefully small amount of power - about 100 mW ("one deciwatt") by the manufacturer's own measurement. Even given the increased efficiency of LEDs, the illumination provided by one of these "bottle lights" is still about 100x greater, it's basically free, and it doesn't require you to tend to it every 15 - 30 minutes.

eksith5• 13 years ago

Would you share a bit more about your off-grid setup? (Power, water, sanitation etc...)

Or do you have any pictures you've shared or would like to share publicly?

D9u3• 13 years ago

My neighborhood is under served by municipal utilities (No telephone, no electricity, no water, no sewage, no cable, no pavement,) so for water most here use rainwater catchment systems using above ground cisterns or pools for storage, and various treatment methods such as UV, RO, and charcoal filtration. (Many haul drinking water from county provided spigots)

For sewage most use cesspools dug a minimum of 12 feet deep by 6 feet wide capped with concrete & steel, although those with small lots are required to use septic tank systems.

For hot water I have a solar collector thermosiphon setup augmented by a propane tankless (on demand) water heater.

For electricity I use PV panels (8 Kyocera 135 W panels) going through an Outback charge controller and a Solar brand voltage inverter, with 6 Interstate 6 volt deep cycle batteries for storage. This is enough to run all of my light electronics, as well as a refrigerator/freezer and more.

For heavy electrical loads I have a backup gasoline generator, which I rarely use anymore.

Since my area has one of the highest electricity rates in the USA my system began paying for itself after less than three years.

My home has a lot of windows, which helps to provide airflow as well as making air conditioning unnecessary, thus I have no need for lighting during the day.

(I had some pictures on one of my phones, but am unable to locate them now...)

hcarvalhoalves3• 13 years ago

I see how a gadget might be more appealing to someone living off-grid by choice, but you can't beat a bottle filled with water.

CompelTechnic• 13 years ago

I never needed indoor lighting during daylight hours

The way I figure, people in need of one of these lights probably won't have windows to let light into their homes, so it makes a bit more sense for their application.

Just my .02

rickdale• 13 years ago

The title of this article bothers me since the article focuses much more on the bottle and light and rather than how poor and proud Alfredo Moser is. Regardless, pretty cool exposure of life in the slums, I'd bet there are more 'hacks' as a means of survival that are necessary there, but we wouldn't think twice about.

I will say the article is good, just don't like the title.

throwaway4203• 13 years ago

I can understand being proud of a beneficial invention and offering something to people without taking money for it. He's done an amazing good deed and hopefully will be remembered for this. But I don't understand the title of the article because I think taking pride in poverty is a weird position to be taking. The headline might just be catchy click bait.

e3pi2• 13 years ago

Proud to be poor?

Not paying taxes into NSA surveillance/military state or any whatever exploitive capitalism as other collared proles. Some people are far too busy than to concern themselves with financial vanity and the distractions that follow it.

Teeming masses of slum youth with linux netbooks must be high on the list of Fort Meade's threat matrix.

coldtea2• 13 years ago

But I don't understand the title of the article because I think taking pride in poverty is a weird position to be taking.

Weird? It's one of the constant positions on poverty since the dawn of civilization -- from christianity and buddhism (the original, not the watered down California style) to bohemianism, communism and so on. Including the "proud, hardworking people" in most rural communities, etc.

casca• 13 years ago

Interestingly, the link from the BBC News main page under the Most Shared and Most Read tabs has the title as "The light inventor who is poor but proud" which seems far more appropriate than the one on the article.

vincie• 13 years ago

I thought of this general idea many years ago, but then decided it might be better to cut up the bottles, flatten the plastic and sew the flat pieces together to make panels to use in roofs and windows. Never got around to actually doing anything about it though.

e3pi2• 13 years ago

Down below, a deck prism illumination is astonishing. Drilling a round hole in the cabin sole is way easier, and a discarded plastic bottle is far less expensive than a vintage Criitenden & Willcox prism. Separate the bleach if you get real thirsty? Watch your head(pun?).

jared314• 13 years ago

Deck prisms: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deck_prism

The main difference here is that deck prisms are flat on top, which limits the amount of light entering the prism. The water in the bottles is filled to the top, creating a dome shaped concentrator. Since water has a refractive index close to glass (~1.3 vs ~1.5) the bottom of the bottle has a similar effect to the deck prism, except with slightly more light.

kefka2• 13 years ago

Hmm. This would also be really useful in doing underground greenhouses.

A tin sheet is cheap. You dig a hole, however long, wide, and deep. Then, you can get in the hole and plant whatever in there. Once done, you can cover it up with the sheet (or wood or whatever) and put the bottle-lights inside.

That way, you keep the pests out of your new garden.

mattgrice2• 13 years ago

It does not seem like that would be very practical.

Very few economically important plants will thrive in anything less than full sunlight. This makes sense because most plants become economically important because they are productive (good at turning sunlight into something we want like calories or wood).

The exceptions are plants that are grown for some valuable quality which is only needed in scarce quantities, like some spices or flowers.

PebblesRox• 13 years ago

Yeah, I didn't understand the hydroponics comment at the end. How does it work better to grow plants indoors than outside if you're using a limited amount of sunlight indoors? Are there other factors that make it worth it?

leke• 13 years ago

I was thinking the same thing. Dig a deep hole, or make a mound, then you can grow your weed with good privacy.

kefka2• 13 years ago

I wasn't thinking weed offhand.

I live in an area with extensive 4 legged rodents called deer. They will come up to your front porch and eat everything they can bite.

Having a vegetable garden like this would keep pests like that away.

Well,that and growing weed.

tzm• 13 years ago

This is effectively a lightbulb that uses wireless energy.

opminion• 13 years ago

Interesting invention. For me, the main thing to learn from this is how much some people depend on artificial light during daylight hours (a reminder of how important hands-on experience is when hacking things to help others).

lbebber• 13 years ago

Being very petulant here, but Uberaba is in the southwest, not in the south.

gyom2• 13 years ago

The problem with the article is that they're obfuscating the fact that this does not produce light. It's basically a smarter way to poke a hole through your ceiling. It's not a device that converts energy into light.

eksith5• 13 years ago

Rather odd thing to say. How it works is explained in the second paragraph after the intro :

"So how does it work? Simple refraction of sunlight, explains Moser, as he fills an empty two-litre plastic bottle."

I agree that it does involve poking a hole through the ceiling, but the thing's simplicity belies its utility and what may seem "obvious" after the fact doesn't make it any less significant an invention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_of_Columbus

gyom2• 13 years ago

I saw that sentence with the word "refraction" and I wasn't sure if it was the whole idea or if refraction was just one part of a clever design to enhance the effects of another artificial light source.

That's why I felt it was misleading. Looking at the article again, though, it's probably clearer than I originally thought it was.

hcckhcck• 13 years ago

goog one

lightyrs• 13 years ago

This headline is offensive. Nowhere in the article does he indicate that he is proud to be poor. Not that there would be anything wrong with that — quite the opposite, in fact, however, this headline reeks of elitism.

gadders• 13 years ago

Daft title and poverty or wealth are morally neutral. You could be equally proud of either.

mnml_• 13 years ago

You can't turn off the fucking thing.

fnordfnordfnord• 13 years ago

It automatically turns itself off at night. And then back on again in the morning; and not in with the shocking "argh! my eyes!" suddenness of an incandescent, but a gradual taper that allows your eyes to adjust slowly.

Also, you could use a cup and a rubber-band to cover it if you needed darkness mid-day.

maxhowell• 13 years ago

It's like a Window. You can “turn off” a window by putting a curtain over it.

return0• 13 years ago

The comparison with edison is just ridiculous.

Fuxy• 13 years ago

That's such an obvious solution I can't believe nobody thought of that before this guy.

Weird.

gngeal• 13 years ago

The numbers don't make sense to me. "It depends on how strong the sun is but it's more or less 40 to 60 watts." <- I hope that's for the whole roof we see in the picture, not for a single bottle. What's the insolation of a single bottle top anyway? (Unless, of course, they're talking about your grandma's old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs.)

sophacles• 13 years ago

Well, at the surface, when the rays are hitting perpendicular to the planet, it's 1000 W/m^2 (approx).

Of course the real problem is they are measuring the light in terms of incandescent bulb power draw, rather than something useful like lumens or candela, but due to a century of ubiquitous light bulbs, we've been rating light in the wrong units.

xanderstrike• 13 years ago

My dad built a treehouse with exactly this with liter water bottles in ~1994, he said he saw it when he was growing up with glass bottles. I hate to be a spoil sport, but this is hardly a new idea.

marcosdumay• 13 years ago

I've this guy on TV a long time ago. I'm certain it was at the 90's, but I don't remember the exact year.

It's not a new idea in any way, and was certainly invented more than once. Yet, it was this guy that (by luck) made the life of several people better by communicating it.

Arubis• 13 years ago

I spent a bit over a year promoting and installing these devices in rural West Africa (see http://gamlight.org). I actually wasn't aware of Mr. Moser, having taken inspiration directly from the Liter of Light project (http://literoflight.org).

In terms of light, a single bottle is insufficient, but ten are enough to light up a mud block-walled, corrugate metal-roofed schoolroom. Since there's virtually zero monitoring of kids' eye health and ability, that can mean the difference between learning to read and learning to look like you're paying attention for young students.

A few things to address:

Night: these things don't produce any light on their own (they're essentially low-cost deck prisms). A lot of people in-country at the time I helped promote these were excited at the possibility that a full moon might produce sufficient light to see, but it's just not enough. You need to supplement these things once the sun's down.

Windows: most of the buildings in rural West Africa are build of mud block, which isn't the most stable or solid of construction materials. It's cheap and readily available, but needs to be built thick and without large windows, or with significant reinforcement to any large windows, or else it crumbles. That means there's very little light coming into these rooms, even in the most sun-kissed of places. Bottle bulbs are an order of magnitude cheaper than installing iron-reinforced windows.

Transparent/translucent roofing: when this stuff is available at all, it's questionable whether it will fit the corrugate pattern of an extant roof, and the quality of the translucent roofing plastics we saw in The Gambia and Senegal was quite low; it would go milky and then opaque over just a year or two, and cost more than replacing a bottle bulb would. By contrast, you can purchase corrugated tin roofing and roofing caulk in just about any West African city, and relatively affordably at that. The bottles themselves can be found cheaply or free anywhere that tourists or aid workers spend time.

Black caps: it's not the color that matters, it's covering the original cap with something more durable. Once you've assured that there's no leaks in the bottle-corrugate metal interface, the cap is the most likely point of failure on these bulbs. The sun is STRONG in these places, which is a lot of stress on opaque plastics; once weakened, a small crack is enough to emit water vapor, and so a bottle bulb's contents would evaporate, requiring replacement.

The real tricks involved are getting a good seal between the bottle and the corrugate tin (we used roof caulking), and making the whole process relatively efficient (it can take a while to punch these out). Once you've got that down, the production and installation process can be taught to locals, who in turn can turn a profit with their labors. I worked with one carpenter for about a year before returning to the states, and he's since picked up a few contracts with the local ministry of education and a few individual customers to install bottle lighting systems.

I would be happy to go on about these things for HOURS (and have, in the past)! They're a niche solution, but they fit their niche extremely well.

cafard• 13 years ago

At some point, Heineken shipped mostly-oblong bottles to somewhere in the Dutch West Indies for use in walls. I have the impression--I read this years ago--that it was more or less a hobby of the owner. Still, it worked.

Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

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