Turning a water bottle into a light bulb

[Rob Williams]

In some countries, being able to turn on a simple lightbulb is a luxury - one few people can take advantage of. There's an initiative in the Phillipines, though, that I thought was quite cool. You need a simple water bottle, filled with water with a bit of bleach added, and then the bottle is pierced through the roof. In essence, the sun will beam down, hit the top of the bottle, and then light up the entire room.

They say the bottle can reach about 60W, but it's hard to tell in the video just how effective it really is (the room still looks pretty dark even with the bulb, but it could have just been difficult to capture on camera).

Either way, a lightbulb that costs just $1 and could effectively last forever is beyond cool.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14967535

 

[Optix]

A light bulb that works when it's light out but not when it's dark when you really, REALLY need a light bulb.

I'm just raining on the parade. It's pretty cool regardless of the redundancy.

 

[Rob Williams]

A light bulb that works when it's light out but not when it's dark when you really, REALLY need a light bulb.

From what I understand from the video, most houses there do have electricity, it's just that a lot of people won't use it. People might be more lenient to use it at night, even sporadically, since daytime light is free.

We really need solar panels to become dirt cheap.

 

[Optix]

No kidding. I've been complaining to just about everybody about that. If you want people to truly make the switch then you have to make it affordable. The same thing with electric cars. Tacking on thousands of dollars to the sticker price to make it green? No spanks.

I'll burn the gas and kill the ozone, thank you!

 

[marfig]

We really need solar panels to become dirt cheap.

You mean for solar companies to not fill for bankruptcy taking with them millions of tax payer dollars(*). Then we'll worry about how much it costs us to put a solar panel in our home.


(*) Would you be surprised if I told you it didn't just happen in USA?

 

[RainMotorsports]

I'm just raining on the parade. It's pretty cool regardless of the redundancy.

Not the only thing raining on something. Did you notice that guy now has a hole in his roof? heh