Have you ever experienced a power failure and had to stumble around in the dark to find a flashlight? It’s not too hard to feel your way from one room to another because you’ve already memorized the layout of your apartment. But if you’ve forgotten where you last put your flashlight, the simple task to find a temporary light source has suddenly become ten times harder, and you better hope you remembered to pick your laptop and keys off the floor or you’re in for a nasty crunch.
We get so impatient when we lose power for a few hours, and furious when it’s out for a couple of days. Sure we can open the curtains during the day to get in enough light to read for a bit, but once the sun goes down there’s not much we can do in the dark except go to bed.
Now imagine what it would like if living in darkness even during the day was a regular part of life. It’s pretty hard to comprehend. We are so reliant on electricity and are so accustom to having houses and buildings with beautiful glass windows that let in sunlight that we don’t even think about how fortunate we are and how amazing it is to be able to flip a light switch.
I had no idea until a few weeks ago that there are millions of people living in the Philippines alone who live in darkness every day. There is a brilliant initiative called Isang Litrong Liwanag or A Liter of Light run by Illac Diaz’s MyShelter Foundation that is changing this in a very awesome, affordable, and green way.
The program uses an incredibly simple system put together by MIT students called the Solar Bottle Bulb. Using the power of the sun, purified water, bleach, a plastic bottle, sealant, and a small sheet of roofing, enough light is refracted to light up a room with zero electricity! Check out the video to see how it works.
I love stories like these. A Liter of Light is changing the world one Solar Bottle Bulb at a time and bringing light and happiness into people’s lives. If you want to learn more about A Liter of Light or to make a donation, visit their website Isang Litrong Liwanag.
Untemplaters, how well do you conserve energy? What did you think of the video?
Amazing…I wonder if you put a bunch of them in would it make the rooms even brighter or just cause leaky roofs in a rainstorm?
I think it would add to the brightness for sure but even just one gives off quite a lot of light!
I love low-tech hacks like these. I watched another video a Filipino backyard inventor that makes small bio-digesters to collect methane. The gas is then used to power up hte house. A nice closed loop system.
Oh cool! That’s a great eco friendly way to save energy too! There are so many ways we can help save the environment by reusing materials amd in that case gases.
Awesome vid! With all of our technical advancements, sometimes finding a simple, efficient idea is really like finding hidden treasure. We really have to open our minds and think outside of the box. Thanks for sharing!
It really is! We are too good at overcomplicating thigs! Simple solutions are so much better a lot of the time. 🙂
Wow! That is a great and awesome idea! I was used to frequent and long power cuts back in my home country, but after coming to the US it has become much difficult to cope with power loss. This technology can provide power to a millions of people worldwide for next to nothing! Great video, thanks for sharing!
I can’t imagine dealing with power cuts, especially in the summer heat. Glad you liked the video! It really made me sit back and say “wow” when I saw it. So simple and so brilliant.
that is crazy how simple that is! something like that is just awesome – a model of modern technology.
I agree and it’s great because all of the materials that are involved in making the lights are easy to get, especially the bottles. Think of all the thousands of plastic bottles we go through. Luckily most of them get recycled but I love how this group is reusing bottles.
Inspiring video Sydney. We last lost power during hurricane Irene, only for about 24 hours. Knowing the power is likely to go out sends people to the grocery store to stock-up on emergency supplies before the storm. Often, much of the refrigerated produce goes off after a prolonged power outage. Very wasteful.
I couldn’t imagine being without power on an ongoing basis.
I’m glad you guys are okay after Irene. I lived through a hurricane and we also lost power but for about 2.5 days. Everybody panicked and went on food and battery runs. The local mom and pops made a fortune raising their prices because people were willing to pay!
I saw a similar video while back – I still have trouble believing this works! The simplicity of this is truly fascinating!
I know! It seems way too easy but it works due to the awesomeness of light refraction. :). We need more simple solutions like these.