Filipino entrepreneur and activist Illac Diaz was recently awarded with the Curry Stone Design Prize for his project Liter of Light which aims at providing the slum dwellers of Philippines with a alternative and cost effective daytime lighting source which can be produced locally.
The solution is Diaz’s ‘Liter of Light‘, which is made from a clear plastic bottle that is filled with water and mounted in a metal tile. The Solar Bottle Bulb, as it is called was originally designed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Its construction and installation is simple. A clear one-liter pop bottle is filled with water, chlorine is added, then the bottle is squeezed part way through a hole in a piece of corrugated tin. A corresponding hole is cut in the tin roof of a house, the tin-and-bottle is secured over the hole so that the bottom of the bottle hangs down through the ceiling/roof, then caulking is applied to prevent rain from getting in. The inexpensive ‘bulb’ disperses sunlight 360 degrees and lights up a room without need for kerosene or inventive wiring.
The campaign was originally initiated in Philippines and was later implemented worldwide including India, Nepal and several countries in South America & Africa. As par of the project the solar bottle bulbs have been distributed and installed in thousands of these informal dwellings. According to sources, the solar bottle bulb has been installed in over 30,000 homes in the Philippines. Diaz estimates the number of installations is around 110,000 all over the world.
Watch the video of Illac Diaz speaking at the TED Dubai 2011 about his project:
