WS2MS: Franc Palaia's Bottle Bulb Demo

[Covered by WiThePeople]:

The Amazing Bottle Bulb
A Demonstration by Franc Palaia

Talk about sustainability.  

One of the most innovative and practical exhibitions I discovered at Catskill’s Wall Street to Main Street art opening in March was the solar bottle bulb.  With water and a little chlorine bleach, the plastic bottle bulb can provide as much light as a standard light bulb.  Extremely impressed, I went back two months later to watch the scheduled demonstration.

The artist, Franc Palaia, explained that the size of the bottle determines the amount of light provided, so that the larger the bottle the greater the “wattage,” or its chlorinated equivalent.  He said the simple and very effective idea was first discovered in Brazil by Alfredo Moser in 2002.  Palaia calls the solar bottle bulb a “low tech way of making light with practically nothing.”

It works like this:

For the portable display, Palaia used a plain cardboard box to simulate a darkened room.  He placed a plastic one-liter bottle filled with water and a few drops of chlorine bleach (to prevent algae growth) in the ceiling of the box and sealed it with strong tape.  The bottles can be used on corrugated roofs, flat roofs, or any roof, Palaia said.

Once installed, the sunlight reaches the bottle, goes through the water, is diffused and then spreads out into the darkened space, creating a beautiful, warm glowing light.  According to Palaia, many people in third world countries who don’t have electricity use solar bottle bulbs, and he said it’s helping to improve their lives.

Although glass bottles can be used, Palaia recommends plastic because it’s easier to use and more accessible.  He said another benefit of using plastic is that it “gets rid of a lot of empty bottles that are all over the place.”  So using plastic, Palaia quipped, “is sort of killing two birds with one bottle.”