Cheap Light Bulbs: World’s Cheapest Light Bulb Shines in Developing Regions
Cheap Light Bulbs: World’s Cheapest Light Bulb Shines in Developing Regions
Students at MIT have recently concocted a genius recycling scheme, ecologically beneficial and capable of helping the environment on a global scale: producing sustainable light bulbs using discarded plastic water bottles. This clever idea, born of a Philippine organization called Isang Litrong Liwanag (“A Liter of Light”), assists in bringing low-cost indoor lighting to regions across the Philippines. And it would certainly be more difficult to find something as wonderfully cost-efficient as these light bulbs are: in addition to the water bottle, the only required components are water and bleach. When assembled correctly, this simple combination is capable of producing lighting equivalent to a 60-watt bulb! The construction of these light bulbs is refreshingly simple: the water and the bleach are poured into a plastic bottle. Sunlight is refracted in all directions by the water, which also disperses the sun’s rays in multiple directions; a single beam, which would traditionally only shine in one small location, can now be used to illuminate an entire area. For its part, the bleach keeps the water clear by preventing the growth of algae and particle build-up inside the bottle. Once assembled, the bottles are put through holes in the roof. Altogether, this process typically takes about an hour to complete. Obviously, these light bulbs are only functional during the day. Still, their installation in Manilla homes has already translated into tremendous cost reductions for families struggling with the high cost of electricity. Over 10,000 of these homemade planet savers have already been installed.
