50W light bulb from a plastic water bottle

[RayPV]

Watched this video and I guess it seems possible. Filling an empty coke bottle with labels removed with water and a couple of caps of bleach give the same amount of light, in daylight as a 55 watt light bulb

http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=28861

[A Turtle Named Mack]

It is not a light 'source' of course, in the sense of generating light - what is being shown is using the assembly to refract the sunlight to the bottom of the bottle, where it is emitted where needed. I see no reason this should not work, and given the number of people in shantytown who have unlighted sheet-metal, wood or cardboard shacks, it might at least help them to be able to be able to live a bit better in their poor homes, for nothing more than stuff you can scrounge.

[jimmy101_again]

Not a bad idea. But drilling a round hole is not easy (especially in corrugated sheet metal) and then sealing the hole around the bottle isn't all that easy.

It is nice that it is using free materials (except the sealant, and the nearly extinct 35mm film container).

I suspect the bleach is to keep stuff from growing in the water.

[damian]

It is a light tube. But how does it turn itself off at midnight? Surely it would turn itself off at sundown. And what was the film canister for?

[ganzfeld]

It's just a translation miss. I'm sure he's saying "à noite", at night. (Where is the Brazilian flag icon already ) ETA On second listen it could be meia-noite.. midnight... ??

[KirkMcD]

Originally Posted by ganzfeld

it could be meia-noite.. midnight... ??

It is sounds like "desligue a meia-noite" "turns off at midnight"
I doubt he literally meant at midnight though.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Making molded rubber collars that would seal around roughly-cut sheet metal (even maybe corrugated?) that would fit the bottles and distributing them through NGOs would seem a cheap and effective way to facilitate these fixtures.

[UEL]

Originally Posted by damian

And what was the film canister for?

I think it was on the video, or some of the related discussion, that I saw it was to protect the cap. I'd be surprised if it was not due to the heat and what not causing warping in the cap, causing a leakage of air/water/bleach and a shrinkage of the bottle, which would then cause a bottle bomb.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Or more likely, the plastic of the cap would degrade in sunlight (I say more likely, because the film canister would probably be hotter inside than the cap would be without it).

[TrishDaDish]

I can't see it (dang dail up) but from your descriptions it sounds like a similar thing I once got in an email, but they used caps of bleach and some Mountain Dew to make it illuminate. It was filmed in a darkened room, but didn't make an "midnight" claims.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Trish, that sounds like a chemical reaction. For this a Mountain Dew bottle would be a very poor choice as it is a fairly dark green. The point of the OP device is to have part of the 2-liter bottle of water sticking above the roof and part below. The sunlight strikes the part above the roof and is deflected to a certain extent toward the bottom, where the light is then deflected generally around the shanty in which it has been installed. Compared to a hole in the roof, it keeps rain and bugs out, and spreads the light generally rather than the direct and very directional light that sunlight gives.

We had assumed that the bleach suppressed algae and such, and it probably does that, but it also may aid the light diffusion so as to get a more general spread rather than the more directional light that sunlight would otherwise give.

[NobodyAtAll]

This reminds me of deck prisms that old sailing ships used to bring light to lower decks, but much more affordable to tin shack dwellers. No cite, just novel reading.