Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light): An Amazing Vision of My Shelter Foundation

Lazy Sunday morning, while I’m checking my Face book wallpost and my friends posts… I saw my friend Karen’s wallpost: A video she shared. I clicked and watch while playing…. Wow! Amazing! I cried because I got touched by this simple TV Advertisement of Isang Litrong Liwanag: an eco-friendly Solar Bottle Bulb Project is a big help to the Philippines… to the rural areas, to the people who cannot afford to buy a bulb or a fluorescent.

Check this video:

Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light), is a sustainable lighting project which aims to bring the eco-friendly Solar Bottle Bulb to disprivileged communities nationwide. Designed and developed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Solar Bottle Bulb is based on the principles of Appropriate Technologies – a concept that provides simple and easily replicable technologies that address basic needs in developing communities.

This is a project of My Shelter Foundation (http://isanglitrongliwanag.org)

MyShelter Foundation was established by Illac Diaz to create a system of sustainability and reliability through its capability-building and employment-generating projects. Introducing groundbreaking social enterprise, appropriate technologies, and alternative construction in the Philippines, we have pioneered projects such as the Pier One Seafarer’s Dormitory, the Design Against the Elements (DAtE) competition, and the Bottle School Project.

Waste bottles into Light

Their Vision

Do you know that millions of families still live in the dark? MyShelter Foundation aims to brighten up one million homes in the Philippines by 2012.

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According to statistics from the National Electrification Commission in 2009, 3 million households still remain powerless outside Metro Manila. And even in the metro, families still continue to live in darkness. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) has reported that a large number of fire- related incidents involve faulty electrical connections. Informal settlements are high-risk areas, since the BFP does not conduct fire hazard inspections in these communities. MyShelter envisions sharing to unprivileged communities an economically- and ecologically-sustainable source of light that will provide an immediate solution to our fellowmen’s problems.

If you want be part of this project, simply click their website and you can donate or volunteer. They toured and built this Litrong Liwanag Project to some parts of the Philippines: Laguna, Bataan, Tondo, etc. And I hope by next year, many poor homes will be brighten soon. It’s free, no bills and I wanna see more Filipino smiles. 🙂

You can like them at their Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Liter-of-Light-Isang-Litrong-Liwanag/181127878593329

Here’s how ‘bottle lights’ conserve energy

http://isanglitrongliwanag.org/2011/04/11/heres-how-bottle-lights-conserve-energy/

SAN PEDRO, Laguna, April 11 (PIA) — Residents of Barangay San Vicente in this municipality wholeheartedly embraced recently the innovation introduced to them by My Shelter Foundation, a non-government organization.

The innovation is called “bottle light,” so called because it is made of an empty 1.5 liter softdrink bottle that can be made a source of light.

It is a cheaper alternative to other light sources because all one has to do is to install it on the roof. The bottle light will then absorb the sunlight and will scatter it inside the house.

Said barangay is the first in the country and even in Asia to use the bottle lights in homes. Four hundred homes were lighted at the project launch recently.

Studies have shown that one can save by using the bottle light instead of a light bulb during daytime.

According to Meralco, P70-80 will be saved if a household will not use bulb in a month.

Illac Diaz of My Shelter Foundation said that one will only spend P150 per bottle light and making one is easy, just fill a 1.5 liter clear soft drink bottle with purified water as tap water will eventually produce moss, then add 3 tablespoons of liquid bleach and tightly seal the cap. Make a hole in the roof and insert the bottom part of the bottle leaving it exposed under the sunlight. Seal roof with a sealant to prevent raindrops from getting inside the house.

The group is hoping that what they have started will be replicated in the country so no Filipino will ever live in a dark home again.

Meanwhile, Diaz asked everyone to donate, instead of throwing away, their empty soft drink bottles. (Alan C. Ortillano, PIA-Laguna)

Check also this link: http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/news_asia/2011-07-12/light-to-the-poor-one-liter-at-a-time.html

In the slums of Manila, an innovative project is shedding light on the city’s dim and dreary shanties.

Plastic bottles jut from the roofs, bringing light to the dark dwellings below.

The technology is as simple as it could be. Each bottle contains water and bleach.

When placed snugly into a purpose-built hole in the roof, the home-made bulb refracts and spreads sunlight, illuminating the room beneath.

Eco-entrepreneur Illac Diaz is behind the project.

[Illac Diaz, A Liter of Light Project]: “What happens is, the light goes through the bottle, basically a window on the roof, and then goes inside the water. Unlike a hole which the light will travel in a straight line, the water will refract it to go vertical, horizontal, 360 degrees of 55 watts to 60 watts of clear light, almost 10 months of the year.”

The initiative, known as “A liter of light”, aims to bring sustainable energy practices to poor communities, an idea originally developed by students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Working with low-income communities, local governments and private partners, the project has installed more than 10,000 bottle lights across Manila and the nearby province of Laguna.

For residents, it means less money spent on electricity to power lights during the daytime, and more money on food.