Helping the Poor in Costa Rica

With metal roofing in many homes in rural areas, all the light is blocked off and no light reaches the home, even during the daylight. This is common in rural areas of Costa Rica and therefore, the indigenous people often can’t afford it, or have no way of getting power to the home. The solar bottle bulb is now helping poor communities in developing countries, such as Costa Rica, Brazil, and the Philippines.

This simple bottle bulb is built with a 1-2 liter soda bottle and filled with a solution of purified water and bleach. The bottle is inserted halfway through a hole drilled in the metal roof with its sides sealed.

The chlorine and bleach keeps molds from developing so the solution can last up to five years, and the clear water helps disperse the light through refraction, so the light is not concentrated. The bottle bulbs refract the sun’s rays to create up to 55-watts of light, bringing the home more light than any traditional window.

It only costs about $2-3 to help bring light into dark homes. The bulb does not produce any harmful pollutants and also reduces the dangers from faulty and temporary electrical connections that cause devastating fires.

Some homes do have limited electrical lighting, however, the Solar Bottle Bulbs allow their owners to save electricity by not using that lighting before dark.

The first Solar Bottle Bulb was designed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The video below shows the installation process, and the effectiveness of the bulbs.