BajaNomad

Cool (and cheap) lighting idea for remote off the grid areas

Taco de Baja - 7-16-2012 at 03:04 PM

Who needs a several $100 solar-tube, when a used soda bottle will do the same thing?

http://dornob.com/solar-bottle-lamps-water-bleach-10000-liters-of-light/
Quote:

Who says you can’t bottle (and distribute) genius? Developed in Brazil to address under-illuminated slums, this simple design idea has been adopted by MIT students and expanded to other developing areas where many low-income homes lack access to either daylight or electricity.

The physics of the concept are straightforward: the bottles are placed in roofs – half outside, half inside – and their lower portions refract light like 60-Watt light bulb but without the need for a power source. A few drops of bleach serve to keep the water clear, clean and germ-free for years to come.

In total, one of these do-it-yourself lights takes maybe an hour to install, cutting an appropriate hole, inserting a bleached-water-filled bottle, and resealing around the resulting gap. Even where clean water is rare, a little can generally be spared for a half-decade of lighting.






larryC - 7-16-2012 at 03:09 PM

Sounds great at first glance, but where is the switch to turn them on at night when you really need them?

DavidE - 7-16-2012 at 03:44 PM

On the grid or off, I use a 9-watt General Electric "daylight" spiral for a nightlight. It draws a tiny bit more than the old-fashioned incandescent teardrop shaped plug in night lights but is at least twenty times or fifty times brighter.

9 watts times 24 = 216 watt hours a day

X 60 days on a bi-mestral CFE bill = 12,960 watt hours

which is 13.0 kWh

at ten cents US a kilowatt hour, that's a dollar thirty cents for 60 days if I should leave it on day and night, which I don't.

But the "Boiler" the hot water heater draws 3,000 watts. One hour of "on" time equals 3 kWh. .30 cents US every hour that it is on.

3,000 watts divided by 9 watts = for every hour the hot water heater heats water, I could have the 9 watt light on for 333 hours. Let's see, at 8 hours a night, that's forty one days of light.

I'm considering buying a shower head electric heater, and neutering the hot water heater. A demand system. Let the neighbor fend for herself (just joking). If the power went off she would simply dissipate without megawatt lighting and music.

Now if you think THAT'S cheap. My LED light bar in my bedroom draws one hundredth of one watt (.01 WATT) when it's on low. We old people with cataracts (or lincolns) need night vision for visits to the baño at 3 AM.

Bob and Susan - 7-16-2012 at 04:19 PM

water in the shower and an electric shower head...sounds dangerous...no escape if there is a problem

DavidE - 7-16-2012 at 04:57 PM

Same concept as an immersion coil. The trick with a shower head heater is to -absolutely- insure the green ground wire goes to direct earth ground. I solder the green wire right through its rivet to the housing. Solder on an extension wire and run that to a guaranteed earth ground connection. Copper is infinitely a better conductor than fresh water. I tested my theory and it tripped a sixty amp breaker, with 0.00 volts appearing at the metal shower head parts five times in a row. These things are banned on the USA because authorities know for a fact that to do-it-yourself consumers "ground" is what you hit if you've had one too many. These are the folks that'll stick a metal butter knife in a toaster to get it to pop. The 120 volt shower heads are wonderful. But they must be turned off after use. If I should put one in here it would carve 80% off the CFE bill. I have got more kWh, volt and frequency meters connected than they did in professor Frankenstein's laboratory.

Zap

bajaguy - 7-16-2012 at 05:11 PM

Uh, I think I would rather have a propane water heater for the shower

http://www.overstock.com/Sports-Toys/Eccotemp-L5-Outdoor-Por...

wessongroup - 7-16-2012 at 05:34 PM

DavidE ... ya got some very good idea's ... and your math is super ... I stink at it ..

And think your "Frankenstein lab" sounds pretty cool ....... do you have the "chain lift" for raising the "subject" up for the lighting strike's working yet .. :):) thanks much

DavidE - 7-16-2012 at 05:38 PM

Shower head heaters were 200 pesos a couple of years ago. Used them for years and years. So did my Mexican friends and families, after I properly grounded the devices. Someone else can run out to the gas truck and lay out 600+ pesos for a tank of gas, and wrestle with it, relight pilots, fuss and fume.

Bob and Susan - 7-16-2012 at 05:57 PM

my propane tank costs $390 pesos and lasts 4 months on a small 10 gallon propane hot water heater

way safer than electric shower head

in the summer we dont even turn on the heater...water too hot

DavidE - 7-16-2012 at 08:03 PM

Hmmm...

The house I'm in, has an electric "boiler" eighteen inches* from the shower head. So did the last house and the one before it, all in Mexico. Electricity. Water. No gas except for the stove. Is the heater grounded? Jajajajajajajajajajaja! Did I find hot and neutral reversed? Did I find 104 volts in the casing of the hot water heater that sits on wood? Run around your Mexico home with a meter and check potential from appliance to floor on the refrigerator, the stove, lamps, toaster, microwave, etc.

*length of pipe, to tip of shower head.

[Edited on 7-17-2012 by DavidE]