Daily Mail – by SARAH GRIFFITHS
A Brazilian mechanic has invented a way of lighting his house during the day without relying on electricity.
Alfredo Moser has been using plastic bottles filled up with water and a splash of bleach to illuminate dark rooms since 2002 and now the idea has now spread across the world.
It is predicted that his lighting system, which works using refraction of sunlight, will be fitted in over a million homes by the end of this year.
It is predicted that his lighting system, which works using refraction of sunlight, will be fitted in over a million homes by the end of this year
The secret of the liquid which fills normal plastic drinks bottles that are often thrown away, is two capfuls of bleach added to water, which stops it turning green with algae when exposed to sunlight.
Mr Moser drills a hole in a roof tile and then pushes the filled bottle in from below, keeping the bottle in place with polyester resin, which waterproofs the ‘window’ in his roof.
The secret of the liquid filling normal plastic drinks bottles that are often thrown away, is two capfuls of bleach added to the water to stop it turning green with algae as it is exposed to sunlight
Mr Moser drills a hole in a roof tile and then pushes the filled bottle in from below, keeping them in place with polyester resin, which waterproofs the ‘window’ in his roof
The mechanic came up with the idea for his ‘Moser light’ during one of the frequent blackouts in Brazil in 2002.
He said only factories had power in his home city of Uberaba, in southern Brazil during the energy shortage.
It was his boss that suggested using a plastic bottle filled with water as a lens to focus the sun’s rays on dry grass to light fires in case of an emergency and Mr Moser developed the concept into his light.
It was his boss that suggested using a plastic bottle filled with water as a lens to focus the sun’s rays on dry grass to light fires in case of an emergency and Mr Moser developed the concept into his light
Depending on the strength of sunlight, the light created in his home is the equivalent to between 40 and 60 watts
He told BBC World Service: ‘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.’
Mr Moser earned a few dollars installing the lights in his local super market and neighbours’ houses but his invention has not made him a wealthy man.
He said: ‘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?’
Mr Moser (pictured) earned a few dollars installing the lights in his local super market and neighbours’ houses but his invention has not made him a wealthy man
A charity now also incorporates water bottles in roofs (pictured) since learning of the Moser method and also trains local people to do the same in order to earn a small living
Carmelinda his wife said her husband has always been handy at home and have made tables and chairs.
Illac Angelo Diaz, executive director of the MyShelter Foundation in the Philippines also admires Mr Moser’s ingenuity.
The charity uses recycled materials to build houses and has plenty of bottle donations, which it fills with mud to build walls and water to create windows.
The bottles make for a distinctive lighting solution in many homes across the world
Moser lamps (pictured) have reportedly been fitted in over 140,000 homes in the Philippines where a quarter of the population live in poverty as well as in 15 other countries, including Argentina, India and Fiji
It now incorporates water bottles in roofs since learning of the Moser method and also trains local people to do the same in order to earn a small living.
Moser lamps have reportedly been fitted in over 140,000 homes in the Philippines where a quarter of the population live in poverty, as well as in 15 other countries, including Argentina, India and Fiji.
Mr Diaz believes over one million people have installed Moser lights in 2013 and credits the mechanic with transforming people’s lives.
‘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,’ he said.
Mr Moser told the BBC he never imagined his invention would have such an impact but said it gives him goose bumps if he thinks how many people are using Moser lights.
The director of MyShelter foundation believes over one million people have installed Moser lights in 2013 and credits Mr Moser (pictured) with transforming people’s lives
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2393454/Brazilian-mechanic-uses-plastic-water-bottles-bleach-create-LIGHT–illuminating-1million-homes.html#ixzz2cAFwfgJy
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I wonder if the Sunlight would yellow the bottles after time. Or worse yet deteriorate the plastic so much that it would fall back into the house. So there you are typing away on your computer under the lamp and pop-spoosh. There goes your only worldly possession.
Best thing too is not a penny, nary a cent to the energy companies and now they are building houses too out these bottles as they insulate better than anything around filled with water or earth.
Now if there was a way to add a phosphering substance to the mix, it could store light for when it becomes dark.
Initially, that seemed to be the impression of the article that caught my interest… until I discovered it was merely little plastic bottle skylights.
Guess I’m still stuck waiting for the next Amazonian technological ‘game changer’ worthy of a Nobel Prize.
Nobel prizes only for those that enjoy droning the bejasus out of tribal people it seems…
I have seen this same thing years ago, but the only difference was you use the roof flashing where your plumbing vent pipe goes thru your roof, which has a rubber seal on it to seal the bottles.
I don’t think that this guy is the one who thought of it.
Things seem new and awesome when an ignorance of history is prevalent.
This idea is HUNDREDS of years old. European wooden cargo ships used solid glass ‘plugs’ ( just about the size of a plastic water bottle) protruding down through the upper deck to the ceiling holds below to light the interior.
In today’s application nomenclature its known as ‘tube lighting’, though with even additional sophisticated European innovations such as prisms and mirrors.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_tube
‘Nothing new under the sun’, as they say. And in this case you can take it literally!
Then again. If Obama can get the Nobel Peace Prize, I see no reason that Moser shouldn’t be awarded for his ‘achievement’ as well, by the very same standards.
They did near the same thing in the American west in the 1800s. But they used glass bottles in frames. In the dugouts and line shacks. To let light in. Today it returns in plastic.
We have something like that in the US:
http://suntunnelskylights.veluxusa.com/consumer/productinfo