Solar Lamp Reuses Disposable Bottles
DIY Solar Bottle Lamp provides illumination and a way to reuse disposable drink bottles.
Recycling is good for the environment when compared to simply throwing items away. At the same time transporting discarded items, reprocessing, and shipping them out again takes a non-negligible amount of energy and expense. One might argue that reusing items for new purposes is the better option, and Debasish Dutta’s DIY Solar Bottle Lamp presents an elegant way to give clear plastic bottles a new life.
As laid out in the project write-up, the lamp's custom 3D-printed top houses a solar panel, LED, rechargeable battery, charge control components, and a PCB to connect everything together. A printed diffuser made out of translucent filament is applied over the LED, and threads on the housing allow a plastic bottle to screw in as the base.
The recycled bottle is filled with water, plus a bit of bleach to avoid algae in long-term use. When attached it does a great job of spreading light around your room, campsite, or other to-be-illuminated area. Given its use of a locally-available resource, this sort of design would be great for developing areas where electrical power and/or lighting aren’t readily available. When camping, using a bottle as hydration during the day, and illumination at night would be a very clever way to conserve backpack space!