Solar Light Bulbs: A frugal 55-watt light bulb?
The cheap, solar-powered bulbs are actually just clear plastic soda bottles filled with a mixture of purified water and chlorine or bleach which is commonly used in household cleaning products.
Each bottle is then inserted halfway into a hole made on the roof of a house, and sealant is applied to prevent leaks and the end result gives the impression of a small, plastic chimney.
The bulb gives off light equivalent to a 55-watt electric lamp as the water inside the bottle refracts sunlight and other exterior light.
Interesting.
Impractical for Canada (snow? ice? polar bears?), but an interesting idea for a cheap lightbulb during the day in such homes.
5 Comments
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MelD
I saw this a couple of years ago and thought it was brilliant.
Also the idea developed by some Swiss students to use PET bottles to disinfect water: it is just laid in the sun for a certain time and something like 90% or more of the germs are destroyed by sunlight. I think they now found that it’s even better if part of the bottle is painted black. Must find out a good link for it, sorry. I just think using a waste product usefully is so clever…
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MattNY
Nice idea, at least temporarily. After a while the UV in the sunlight degrades the plastic, and you end up with water and bleach bombs falling all over your stuff.
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MelD
Note to self: should research before commenting!
The link is http://www.sodis.ch/index_EN