What a bright idea!

[Pyree]

Shanty town residents in Kenya use plastic bottle and bleach to refract sunlight into their huts:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-07/plastic-bottles-brighten-kenyan-shanty-town/3717958?WT.svl=news4

I wonder if this will also become an architectural trend in the developed world. The people in the shanty can be lifted out of poverty by patenting this.

 

[wanamingo]

This is awesome! Great for developing countries.

My immediate thought was camping or in my shed, I wonder how drastically you can change the shape and still retain that level of reflection?

 

[Pyree]

I don't know. But using 2L soft drink bottle seems to work very well and it is free!

I wouldn't change the design.

How about you post some picture if you have time to convert your shed to solar?

 

[jsc]

But what do they do after dark?

Still, some light is better than no light.

 

[Pyree]

They live in a hut so they don't have window. The bottle on the roof trick works during the day but I guess they have to use electric light at night.

 

[jsc]

Or do what everyone did before artificial lighting - work from "Can't see to can't see".

 

[chunkymonster]

Very ingenious!

Reminds me of the glass prisms used on ships to refract light below decks.