And we cannot
take this further? Every building
requires daytime lighting to manage shadow that causes uneven lighting. Most roofs can work around a simple plastic
insert properly sealed. Thus an interior
space can readily be lit using this technology.
It uses no energy and is as easily discarded and replaced.
In this way
power can be conserved during daylight hours while enhancing the working
environment.
It has now been
well tested and demonstrated. A plastics
manufacturer needs to cook up a design package that works well enough. It should be easy. At least make up a collar tile for all these
soda bottles. A rubber washer and the
water bottle will go no where.
Alfredo Moser:
Bottle light inventor proud to be poor
By Gibby ZobelBBC World Service, Uberaba, Brazil
12 August 2013 Last updated at 19:22 ET
Alfredo Moser's invention is lighting up the world.
In 2002, the Brazilian mechanic had a light-bulb moment and came up with a way
of illuminating his house during the day without electricity - using nothing
more than plastic bottles filled with water and a tiny bit of bleach.
In the last two years his innovation has spread
throughout the world. It is expected to be in one million homes by early next
year.
So how does it work? Simple refraction of sunlight,
explains Moser, as he fills an empty two-litre plastic bottle.
"Add two capfuls of bleach to protect the water
so it doesn't turn green [with algae]. The cleaner the bottle, the
better," he adds.
Wrapping his face in a cloth he makes a hole in a
roof tile with a drill. Then, from the bottom upwards, he pushes the bottle
into the newly-made hole.
"You fix the bottle in with polyester resin.
Even when it rains, the roof never leaks - not one drop."
The lamps work best with a black cap - a film case
can also be used
"An engineer came and measured the light,"
he says. "It depends on how strong the sun is but it's more or less 40 to
60 watts," he says.
What is refraction?
Refraction is the bending of light, which is caused
by a change in its speed
The speed of light is determined by the density of
the substance through which it passes
So refraction occurs when light passes from one
substance to another with a different density - eg from air to water
In the case of the "Moser lamp", sunlight
is bent by the bottle of water and spread around the room
The inspiration for the "Moser lamp" came
to him during one of the country's frequent electricity blackouts in 2002.
"The only places that had energy were the factories - not people's
houses," he says, talking about the city where he lives, Uberaba, in
southern Brazil.
Moser and his friends began to wonder how they would
raise the alarm, in case of an emergency, such as a small plane coming down,
imagining a situation in which they had no matches.
His boss at the time suggested getting a discarded
plastic bottle, filling it with water and using it as a lens to focus the sun's
rays on dry grass. That way one could start a fire, as a signal to rescuers.
This idea stuck in Moser's head - he started playing around, filling up bottles
and making circles of refracted light.
Soon he had developed the lamp.
"I didn't make any design drawings," he
says.
"It's a divine light. God gave the sun to
everyone, and light is for everyone. Whoever wants it saves money. You can't
get an electric shock from it, and it doesn't cost a penny."
Moser has installed the bottle lamps in neighbours'
houses and the local supermarket.
While he does earn a few dollars installing them,
it's obvious from his simple house and his 1974 car that his invention hasn't
made him wealthy. What it has given him is a great sense of pride.
How much energy do the lamps save?
The plastic bottles are up-cycled in the local
community, so no energy is needed to gather, shred, manufacture and ship new
bottles
The carbon footprint of the manufacture of one
incandescent bulb is 0.45kg CO2
A 50 Watt light bulb running for 14 hours a day for
a year has a carbon footprint of nearly 200kg CO2
Moser lamps emit no CO2
"There was one man who installed the lights and
within a month he had saved enough to pay for the essential things for his
child, who was about to be born. Can you imagine?" he says.
Carmelinda, Moser's wife of 35 years, says her
husband has always been very good at making things around the home, including
some fine wooden beds and tables.
But she's not the only one who admires his lamp
invention. Illac Angelo Diaz, executive director of the MyShelter Foundation in
the Philippines, is another.
MyShelter specialises in alternative construction,
creating houses using sustainable or recycled materials such as bamboo, tyre
and paper.
"We had huge amounts of bottle donations,"
he says.
4
"So we filled them with mud and created walls,
and filled them with water to make windows.
"When we were trying to add more, somebody
said: 'Hey, somebody has also done that in Brazil. Alfredo Moser is putting
them on roofs.'"
Following the Moser method, MyShelter started making
the lamps in June 2011. They now train people to create and install the
bottles, in order to earn a small income.
In the Philippines, where a quarter of the
population lives below the poverty line, and electricity is unusually
expensive, the idea has really taken off, with Moser lamps now fitted in
140,000 homes.
The idea has also caught on in about 15 other
countries, from India and Bangladesh, to Tanzania, Argentina and Fiji.
Diaz says you can find Moser lamps in some remote
island communities. "They say, 'Well, we just saw it from our neighbour
and it looked like a good idea.'"
Light to work in Bangladesh
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.
A voluntary organisation called Change began
distributing the bottle light, or botul bati, earlier this year. It's
helped hundreds of people - including sari makers and rickshaw repairers -
whose livelihoods depend on having sufficient light.
There were teething problems. "Some people said
they felt poorer after installing a bottle light," says Change founder
Sajid Iqbal. The group counters this by stressing that each one helps tackle
climate change.
Unlike some other charities, Change charges a small
amount for the lights - roughly the price of 2-3kg of rice. "If you give
the light for nothing, people don't maintain them," Iqbal says. "They
don't understand their value."
People in poor areas are also able to grow food on
small hydroponic farms, using the light provided by the bottle lamps, he says.
Overall, Diaz estimates, one million people will
have benefited from the lamps by the start of next year.
"Alfredo Moser has changed the lives of a
tremendous number of people, I think forever," he says.
"Whether or not he gets the Nobel Prize, we
want him to know that there are a great number of people who admire what he is
doing."
Did Moser himself imagine that his invention would
have such an impact?
"I'd have never imagined it, No," says
Moser, shaking with emotion.
"It gives you goose-bumps to think about
it."
Alfredo Moser spoke to Outlook on the BBC World
Service. Listen to the interview via BBC
iPlayer Radio or browse
the Outlook podcast archive.
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