Easy, solar bulbs for Cebu schools
With the heat of the sun, a plastic soda bottle filled with water can shine 55 watts of light.
The low-cost solar bottle bulbs are being proposed to share “a liter of light” in public schools of Cebu province.
Illiac Diaz, chief executive officer of My Shelter Foundation based in Manila, submitted the proposal to Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia during his visit to the Capitol on Thursday.
“She (Garcia) was very excited. It’s something replicable and not something we have to import like solar panels,” said Diaz, the proponent of the “Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light)” project.
Diaz together with the Rotary Club of Cebu Fuente installed the first 40 solar bottle bulbs in stalls of Larsian Food Market at Fuente Osmena last week.
“From there, we will take it to public schools and clinic areas that are spending a lot of money for electricity during the daytime when light could be free,” he said.
The low-cost bulb is made of plastic soda bottles, corrugated sheets and a solution of water and chlorine.
Mounted on the roof, the bottle protrudes from a hole in the ceiling so the upper part of the bottle absorbs solar energy and the lower part produces light.
The solar bottle bulb was developed in 2006 by students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States and has been used in poor communities in Mexico and Brazil.
“We will share the technology and show how to do it so it can be replicated in every household that needs it,” Diaz said.
The bulb is an example of simple and easily replicable technology that meets basic needs in developing communities.
Diaz said they are excited to share the “gift of free light” in the Visayas .
