A project launched by My Shelter Foundation, a non-governmental organization from the Philippines aims to lighten the homes of financially-challenged people. The idea is quite simple. The system depends on solar-powered “bulbs” made from old plastic bottles. Common bottles are filled with filtered water and some bleach and then they are sealed to avoid any leaks. Finally, these items are installed into the holes of the roof manufactured from corrugated iron.
The method provides the equivalent of 55W of sunlight to lighten the household during the day.
The project started in the poor part of the Philippines (Sitio Maligaya) in 2011 is also creating jobs, since workers are needed to install the earth-friendly bulbs into the metal sheet placed on rooftops.
Even though this initiative is rather new, the lightning system has been first implemented almost a decade ago, in Brazil, by Alfredo Moser. His invention has been modified by MIT students, to fit the needs of poor local people from the Philippines.
The developers are thrilled about their project and say it will help curb the amount of greenhouse gas emissions reaching the atmosphere, while helping poor people pay less for the energy they consume on a daily basis.
“The challenge is how can the developing world come up with its own model to limit emissions of carbon- we can’t afford to buy imported, patented or manufactured solutions from the developed world and can’t afford to wait until they become affordable,” explained Ilac Diaz from My Shelter Foundation.
The foundation’s goal is to use this alternative source of daylight to brighten one million homes in the country by 2012.
Here is a diagramm showing how it works.
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