Turn a 2-Liter bottle into a 50 watt lightbulb (w/ video)

That rudimentary method would not appeal to most people but developers could come up with a way to attractively integrate this type of lighting into all government buildings, saving millions in electricity every year. But they won't.

reply to post by Scooby Doo


That's just sweet. As for how he made it...2l bottle, film case to protect the bottle-cap, water and a few drops of bleach to prevent the growth of bacteria.

I wasn't impressed until they showed the woman at the end in the house with no windows.

Great post, definitely a trick to remember.

Originally posted by Bombeni
That rudimentary method would not appeal to most people but developers could come up with a way to attractively integrate this type of lighting into all government buildings, saving millions in electricity every year. But they won't.

They actually already make this type of lighting commercially speaking. There are many companies making these. I rather use solar panels charging up super capacitors or batteries, and use led lighting for day or night use.

www.sun-dome.com...

Some images of their application -

www.sun-dome.com...

[edit on 4-11-2009 by Freezer]

I've seen daylighting used quite extensively in some of my local big box stores like Costco. The entire roof of the sardine can building is full of flat skylight panels. It makes a huge difference on a sunny day in such a cavernous store. This is not a new concept, its just neato because this guy is installing water bottles in the roofs of primitive structures. Modern residential construction will not accommodate these bottles.

I would like to see how these things hold up in areas of high Sun/UV exposure. I suspect that the plastic would degrade over a short period of time depending on location. Not to mention the risk one of these holes leaking or a bottle giving way and falling into your structure. Imagine being away for a couple of days with a nice rodent sized hole in your roof.

Originally posted by Freezer

Originally posted by Bombeni
That rudimentary method would not appeal to most people but developers could come up with a way to attractively integrate this type of lighting into all government buildings, saving millions in electricity every year. But they won't.

They actually already make this type of lighting commercially speaking. There are many companies making these. I rather use solar panels charging up super capacitors or batteries, and use led lighting for day or night use.

www.sun-dome.com...

Some images of their application -

www.sun-dome.com...

[edit on 4-11-2009 by Freezer]

Here in the usa I think regular kilowatt electricity is the standard, which needs to start changing. I've never heard of making lighting with this type of simple schematics, which tells you how widespread or NOT widespread, saving energy is in the usa. We are so behind the times on energy saving it isn't even funny. We are the throw-away society and one day we will pay for this "I want what I want and I want it now" syndrome.

They have made "Light Tubes" they don't produce light .. they are excellent refractors of light .. would be great in a shed. The ones you can buy from home depot are pricier ... great for a spot you don't care what it looks like.
Will have to try it.

Coming next from Brasil the Car that can only be driven during tornados and a cooker you can only use at 4am

Hmm... it wasn't clear that this only worked during the daylight hours. I thought there might be some kind of luminescence that had been overlooked somehow. So all this does is function as a sort of skylight, allowing some sunlight to filter into an enclosure? That doesn't seem terribly impressive.

I suppose if you can afford to poke holes in your roof, and if you have rooms without windows (or with very small ones), then maybe it makes sense to use bottles for lighting. Otherwise, it's just a fancy way of redirecting sunlight.

Why not just put in a skylight?

Originally posted by Bombeni
Here in the usa I think regular kilowatt electricity is the standard, which needs to start changing. I've never heard of making lighting with this type of simple schematics, which tells you how widespread or NOT widespread, saving energy is in the usa.

Originally posted by grey580
Why not just put in a skylight?

That's what these bottles are, a primitive skylight mounted in a metal roof.

Some residential properties DO have skylights, I used to own a home that had one, and it's nice but prone to leaking, which I suspect is also a problem with these bottles though they didn't admit it in the video.

And I've been in penty of commercial properties that use skylights too, so this skylights are not an unheard of concept. To those people that think these bottles are more than skylights, I don't think so. They may allow slightly more sunlight per unit area of roof opening, but most skylights have much bigger roof openings than these bottles so that more than compensates.

reply to post by MMPI2


You could use clear mineral oil, which is unlikely to freeze.

Baby oil would also work, or even cheap vegetable oil.

reply to post by grey580


These are deck prism skylights. Big, flat skylights cost money and these folks are not wealthy. Because they are essentially made from waste materials and require little labor to install, especially with metal roofs, poor people can afford them. They will degrade over time but a replacement is easy and much cheaper than glass. There are no worries about breakage, either.

Originally posted by On the level
Coming next from Brasil the Car that can only be driven during tornados and a cooker you can only use at 4am

See a need. Fill a need!
from the 2005 film 'Robots'

That cooker would be very hand for those staff who work nights.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1690ff84cf1e.jpg[/atsimg]

[edit on 5/11/09 by Daisy-Lola]

reply to post by Daisy-Lola


Which is then handy for about 20% of the worlds workforce and when I worked nights I normally had my diner before I went to work

Originally posted by On the level
reply to post by Daisy-Lola

 

Which is then handy for about 20% of the worlds workforce and when I worked nights I normally had my diner before I went to work

I used to take a dinner in with me and cook it in the microwave

You do do understand that 20% of the worlds workforce is a 1/5. That's a big percentage!

The point is, the light works exactly as described. It doesn't require any patent, no major outlay, no trained engineer to install it, and while it is illuminating, they're not being charged for that electricity. The parts are cheap or free and easily replaced. You saw the conditions of some of the houses in the video - these people dont drive down to Costco and get a mini generator and a handful of 50W bulbs to solve their problems. They use human ingenuity!

I fail to understand some peoples mocking of a good idea that works. Yes it only works during daylight, which, if you pay your electricity bill is peak hours. When it goes dark THEN you turn on the electric light, not a difficult concept.

Originally posted by Bombeni
Here in the usa I think regular kilowatt electricity is the standard, which needs to start changing. I've never heard of making lighting with this type of simple schematics, which tells you how widespread or NOT widespread, saving energy is in the usa. We are so behind the times on energy saving it isn't even funny. We are the throw-away society and one day we will pay for this "I want what I want and I want it now" syndrome.

I know what you mean, and I too live in the U.S. I wouldn't put all the blame on the people, yet if they want to save money, they better do some research. I would say this wastefulness of energy is purposeful. Consumers wasting energy is how they make big bucks. Take the lead acid battery for example. There are batteries out there that don't use the dangerous sulfuric acid, like nickel iron which last 50+ years. Do battery companies want to make a battery that last 50 years, not really. They rather make a battery that sulfates and destroys itself, and then you are off to buy more..Unfortunately it's all about making money. One of the things to keep a society down is to make them believe that there's no other alternatives opposed to the one's they're selling. I don't think they can keep this suppression up for much longer though. To many garage inventors are making these guys look foolish.

I put one in my old RV sans water in place of the small wood stove chimney-
works fine but in a N American roof its hard to seal and snow/ice would prob bust it
y

Originally posted by WeAreAllGod
reply to post by HotSauce

 

It's just a plastic bottle filled with water, the bleach is to keep the water clean and the film canister is to protect the lid from the sun. It works because the sunlight outside is refracted through the water.

The film canister may help the cap from degrading but what about the rest of the bottle exposed to the suns rays? Unless I'm wrong here the type of plastic used in these bottles starts degrading after 6 mos, then you can either replace that bottle or patch that 5" hole you cut in the roof...lol

Originally posted by Bombeni
Here in the usa I think regular kilowatt electricity is the standard, which needs to start changing. I've never heard of making lighting with this type of simple schematics, which tells you how widespread or NOT widespread, saving energy is in the usa. We are so behind the times on energy saving it isn't even funny. We are the throw-away society and one day we will pay for this "I want what I want and I want it now" syndrome.

I wouldn't be so quick to judge. There are a number of people who, if presented with it _AND_ they had the additional extra funds would probably go for something like this if they could see a good local demo of it. The thing is, most people aren't ready, nor capable to make the big front end investments like this and then take 10 years to let it pay for itself.

Remember, we're always also being bombarded by snake oil and novelties, so most of us are generally wary, and probably much more financially conservative in ways than you'd realize.

Myself, I'd love something like this for my shop, but, I'm also not willing to sink too much into it when I can get overhead floresents for a notable fraction of the cost.

Also, keep in mind, a large portion of the country works during the day, so they don't care if there is sufficient and economical light in their house during those hours, since the house is unoccupied. My unpowered lightbulb is more economic at that point than these sky lights.

Cool diffusion trick but it won't work in the US because...
1 - poking holes through the ceiling will devalue the price of the home, and
2 - the weather varies drastically throughout the country.

If the roof expands during the hot summer days, that bottle will fall on your head and splatter your clothes with bleach solution.

However this would make a nice alternative to sunroofs in homes.

Tests should be performed to see if this can somehow improve solar panel efficiency, with respect to diffused vs direct sun light.

Here is a vid that shows you how to make a light using a regular pencil.