Plastic bottle solar light

I just saw this, and wanted to share..





Sorry, Im not tech saavy enough to figure this out...here's the link.

Edited the above to embed the Youtube video.

Thanks for posting this. A buddy of mine turned me on to this idea a year or so back but didn't have the info about the solar/led stuff for the nighttime which is a big deal (24 hour light). If this doesn't put the guilt trip on us first worlders to get more efficient with our energy I don't know what will.

Jennifer: Thank you.

Landon: I agree, and I love how simplistic the idea is. Anyone could do this, but my question is, how can I do this with a conventional roof? my husband and I were thinking some sort of reflective pipe run through with the bottle attached to the bottom of that...would be interesting to experiment with...

They do have commercial solar tubes for a conventional roof. you could also use mirrors to reflect light from out side to the inside.

Bryan told me about solar tubes, and also suggested mirrors. My inner cheapskate, likes free pop bottles better though...and I suppose it wouldn't do me any good in the winter with the snow piling up on top. Oh well. I guess not all great ideas can be implemented in my home...

what if you took several pop bottles and cut the tops and bottoms off so you could have a long tube of pop bottles sealed on both ends and held to gether with duct tape? I wonder if that would transfer the light?

I have Velux sun tubes installed in my home, two 10 inch and one 21 inch. I am not endorsing the Velux products. At the time, they were the best choice for me and a I have been satisfied with their performance. The 21 inch has a 12 foot straight vertical run and is still very, very bright (I could have used a 17 or even a 14 inch). I had to cobble together parts from the residential and commercial kits to get what I wanted. The 10 inch have a 4 foot offset run. They light up a 40 ft hallway. I could have gotten by with one.

The diffuser technology has improved significantly (with integrated fluorescent or LED) since I purchased mine. I may upgrade when I repaint next (will have to retire some light fixtures and will need to do some patching. Rigid tubing is preferable to flex tube, especially for long or offset runs.

I ran across the bottle skylight a few year ago. I like the addition of the LEDs. You will have to ad antifreeze in climates where it freezes. Rather than taping bottles together, try a tube. I do not know if the tube requires a reflective coating, if indeed the water is the transfer medium. Shouldn't be expensive to find out, I suppose. Many years ago, a bomb shelter company offered water-filled light tubes (20+ foot runs) to give natural light to their luxury bunkers in Southern Utah.

There are clear tubes for containing florescent tubes, seal the ends and you might have an affordable tube version of the bottle light.

What about a glass gallon jug for a solar light? Bigger would be better, right? Filled with water/bleach, or alcohol, or mineral oil?

I'm getting ready to put in some solar lights using colored glass bail-top bottles, a whole slew of them. I plan to use the flashing things with the rubber seals like the genius did in his chicken house youtube video. Instead of using foil, I will paint white the portion of the bottle that is within the flashing.

But, it seems to me that the bigger the vessel, the better. I was wondering about getting glass gallon jugs for a couple of the skylights. Not sure whether they make flashing that big --- maybe for a stove pipe?

What do you think?

I'd be worried about a glass gallon jug falling out and hitting me on the head!

No worries. Some rooms of the house are hard hat-only zones.