by Fern Shaw | Aug 19, 2013 | Health and Hydration
Gobsmacked. Yep, that’s me. ‘Why’, you ask? ‘Let me tell you’, I answer.
Because of this man: Mr Moser. Alfredo Moser. Inventor of the bottle light.
In 2002, the Brazilian mechanic had a light-bulb moment and came up with a way of illuminating his house during the day without electricity – using nothing more than plastic bottles filled with water and a tiny bit of bleach.
In the last two years his innovation has spread throughout the world. It is expected to be in one million homes by early next year.
So how does it work? Simple refraction of sunlight, explains Moser, as he fills an empty two-litre plastic bottle.
“Add two capfuls of bleach to protect the water so it doesn’t turn green [with algae]. The cleaner the bottle, the better,” he adds.
Wrapping his face in a cloth he makes a hole in a roof tile with a drill. Then, from the bottom upwards, he pushes the bottle into the newly-made hole.
“You fix the bottle in with polyester resin. Even when it rains, the roof never leaks – not one drop.”
The lamps work best with a black cap – a film case can also be used.
“An engineer came and measured the light,” he says. “It depends on how strong the sun is but it’s more or less 40 to 60 watts,” he says.
What is refraction?
- Refraction is the bending of light, which is caused by a change in its speed
- The speed of light is determined by the density of the substance through which it passes
- So refraction occurs when light passes from one substance to another with a different density – e.g. from air to water
- In the case of the “Moser lamp”, sunlight is bent by the bottle of water and spread around the room
His boss at the time suggested getting a discarded plastic bottle, filling it with water and using it as a lens to focus the sun’s rays on dry grass. That way one could start a fire, as a signal to rescuers. This idea stuck in Moser’s head – he started playing around, filling up bottles and making circles of refracted light.
Soon he had developed the lamp.
“I didn’t make any design drawings,” he says. “It’s a divine light. God gave the sun to everyone, and light is for everyone. Whoever wants it saves money. You can’t get an electric shock from it, and it doesn’t cost a penny.”
How much energy do the lamps save?
- The plastic bottles are up-cycled in the local community, so no energy is needed to gather, shred, manufacture and ship new bottles
- The carbon footprint of the manufacture of one incandescent bulb is 0.45kg CO2
- A 50 Watt light bulb running for 14 hours a day for a year has a carbon footprint of nearly 200kg CO2
- Moser lamps emit no CO2
Source: UN
“There was one man who installed the lights and within a month he had saved enough to pay for the essential things for his child, who was about to be born. Can you imagine?” he says.
Extracts taken from an article by Gibby Zobel BBC World Service, Uberaba, Brazil
So, whereas we at AquAid are not suggesting that you use your water from your water cooler for this ground breaking invention, we felt it only right that we dof our cap to the inventor. More power to you, Mr Moser!
by Fern Shaw | Jul 26, 2013 | Charity, Health and Hydration
AquAid is all about water, hydration and water coolers, and most importantly, supporting sustainable charities.
Kidney Research UK is all about funding research aimed at finding better treatments, and ultimately a cure, for kidney disease. They have over £10.1 million invested in research at any one time, awarding grants to doctors, nurses and researchers across the UK. They also campaign for better patient access to renal services and are dedicated to raising awareness of kidney disease.
As AquAid is constantly looking at ways to increase awareness about how important keeping our vital organs hydrated is, we chose to supply this year’s Kidney Research U.K. London Bridges Walk with a rather fabulous bank of bottle fed water coolers – to keep the energetic walkers well hydrated! This amazing walk covers a route of approximately 7 miles, and takes you over some of London’s most famous bridges.
There were 1 190 people who took part in this year’s event on 14th July 2013 and understandably, with the glorious sunny weather, there was many a thirsty walker whose eyes lit up when they saw the cool drinking water.
The event was a great success and they were joined by celebrities Nina Wadia and Nadia Sawalha, both well known for having starred in the popular soap EastEnders, along with DJ Oliver Scott from Star Radio, Cambridgeshire and fitness instructor Julia McCabe.
Have water, will walk!
by Fern Shaw | Jul 24, 2013 | Health and Hydration, water cooler, Water Coolers
Too Much Salt (High Sodium Levels)
The most common form of sodium imbalance is a blood sodium level that is too high. Excessive blood sodium levels mean that your body lacks enough water to cope with the amount of sodium it contains.
Contrary to popular belief, the primary cause of high blood sodium levels is not consumption of too much salt, but dehydration (not enough water intake).
Lack of adequate water intake is a very common condition in the United Kingdom due to the fact that most people fail to drink enough water each day, while also eating foods that are high in sodium. Other possible causes of dehydration include diarrhoea; vomiting; fever; excessive sweating (particularly during hot weather); abnormal kidney function; diabetes; head trauma or surgery involving the pituitary gland; imbalanced calcium and/or potassium levels; sickle cell disease, and use of drugs such as corticosteroids or diuretics.
When the amount of sodium in your body becomes too high, your body’s blood volume increases. When this happens extra fluid accumulates in the space surrounding your body’s cells. Such an accumulation of fluid around your cells can cause a variety of problems.
The most common symptoms of high blood sodium levels are confusion, depression, fatigue, fluid retention, irritability, lack of coordination, muscle cramps or twitching, nausea, restlessness, and general weakness.
Another common symptom of high sodium levels is oedema, which is characterized by swelling of body tissues, especially in the feet and ankles.
More serious symptoms of high sodium levels can include changes in blood pressure and heart rate, coma, seizure, and death.
A check-up by your physician is necessary to determine if you suffer from high blood sodium levels. If you are found to have this problem, then by all means you should avoid eating salty foods. But you should also beware of drinking salty beverages, such as sports drinks. And you should also increase your daily intake of water, especially following exercise or if you are taking medications.
It really is up to you to ensure that you take as best care that you can of the rather marvellous body that you’ve been given. If you’re already doing so, bully for you – perhaps you can share your knowledge with others less in the know.
So be especially careful in this heat, remember to keep hydrated and spread the water word as you’ve gathered around the water cooler.
by Fern Shaw | Jul 24, 2013 | Health and Hydration
I’ve always had an inkling about the too little / too much salt intake factor. To me, it’s always about balance and moderation. Yes, most foods are so stuffed with salt that we’ve become a nation that could probably turn into a pillar of salt without any help from Lot and his tribe. Or a salt lick for a gee-gee (that’s horse in adult language). So, whenever I am tempted to salt everything (which I pretty much do anyhow), ending up as a salt lick for an animal gives me pause for thought.
I’ve always had a fascination with salt; my current obsession is curing olives. From scratch – well, from pick. Yes, olives that I picked with my very own pale and interesting hands. Basic requirements: bags of salt, water and oceans of patience. Like, really. Up to 9 weeks of patience. As this is a rather lengthy subject (as with the olive curing), I’m going to be dividing the water and sodium blogs up, so that I don’t lose you – zzzzzz – halfway through and so that you can absorb (ha) the information.
Most of us are familiar with the warning that we should restrict salt (sodium) in our diet. Too much salt intake, we are told, can be bad for us.
While that is true, it is also true that sodium, in proper concentrations, is a mineral that is essential for helping your body to maintain good health. Located primarily in the blood and in the fluids inside and outside of the cells, sodium is vital for normal nerve and muscle function, and is required to maintain normal fluid balance within and around the cells.
It’s when sodium levels become too high or too low that imbalances can result, setting the stage for disease.
Your body’s supply of sodium is derived from foods and drinks you consume, while sodium is excreted primarily through perspiration and during urination. Your kidneys maintain a consistent level of sodium in the body by regulating the amount of sodium that is eliminated in the urine. But when sodium intake and excretion are not in balance, the total amount of sodium in the body is affected. Changes in your body’s sodium levels directly affect your body’s blood volume (how much water your blood contains).
Later blogs will detail what too much and too little salt does to us; good and bad salts and the top 10 foods high in sodium.
For this week, and especially keeping in mind the heat we’re experiencing; I think it’s important to remember to keep hydrated, especially as you are more likely to sweat (men); perspire (general people) and ‘glow’ (women with Victorian age sensibilities). This means that you are not only losing water vital to all your body functions, but you are also sweating salt, which needs to be replenished.
This does not necessarily mean that you now have license to eat bags and bags of salt ‘n vinegar crisps as you will find that most foodstuffs are already salted (contain sodium). Just stay cool, drink your water, keep calm and carry on.
by Fern Shaw | Jul 18, 2013 | Health and Hydration
It seems strange that water should be such a scarce resource when our planet is drenched in 326 million trillion gallons of the stuff. But it turns out that less than one-half of 1 percent of it is drinkable. Out of the rest, 98 percent is oceanic salt water and 1.5 percent remains locked up in icecaps and glaciers.
Between droughts, natural disasters and the large-scale redistribution of moisture threatened by climate change, the need for new sources of potable water grows with each passing day. Each year, the global population swells by another 85 million people, but worldwide demand for freshwater increases at twice the rate of population growth, doubling every 20 years or so. Throughout the world, our most vital resource is under stress from pollution, dam construction, wetland and riparian (meaning of, relating to, or situated on the banks of a river), ecosystem destruction, and depletion of groundwater aquifers, with poor and marginalised populations getting the worst of it.
So why can’t we convert seawater into drinking water? Actually, we can and we do. In fact, people have been making seawater drinkable at least as far back as the ancient Greeks. But when taken to the scale of cities, states and nations, purifying seawater has historically proven prohibitively expensive, especially when compared to tapping regional and local sources of freshwater. However, as advancing technology continues to drive costs down and freshwater continues to grow scarcer and more expensive, more cities are looking to seawater conversion as a way to meet this vital demand.
How and where is desalination used today?
Desalination has come a long way in the 2,400 years or so since people boiled salt water and collected the steam in sponges. Yet, the most widely used method is still based on the same principle: distillation. Essentially, distillation artificially mimics what occurs in nature: Heated water evaporates to become water vapour, leaving salts and impurities behind, and then condenses as it cools to fall as freshwater (aka rain). Distillation plants refine and speed up this process by applying artificial heating and cooling and by evaporating water under lower air and vapour pressure, which significantly reduces its boiling point. This method requires a great deal of energy, however, so distillation plants are often located alongside power plants, where waste heat is available to bring the water up to a volatile temperature.
Another method, reverse osmosis (RO) desalination, uses pressure to force water through filters, straining out other substances at the molecular level. Developed in the 1960s, the process became feasible on a commercial scale in the 1970s, ultimately replacing distillation as the method used in most new desalination facilities, in part because it requires less energy. Besides removing salt, both methods remove virtually every mineral and most biological or organic chemical compounds, producing water that is safe to drink.
As much as desalination has increased over the years, it is still just a drop in the bucket.
Of course, you lucky fish don’t need to resort to these rather extreme applications – all you need to do is visit us here , drop us an e-mail and no sponges, boilers (we have those too by the by) necessary; just a range of water coolers tailor-made to suit your requirements. We’ll be happy to guide you in the right choice of water cooler solutions using our oodles of experience.
So, really, step away from that manky sponge and make use of our expertise.
Excerpts from https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/desalination.htm
by Fern Shaw | Jul 15, 2013 | Health and Hydration
Or as Martha sang, ‘Heat wave …. uh … Heat waaaaaaave …’
Or as a fellow FB’er posted … ‘Don’t we just call this summer?’
Anyhow, tamayto, tomado, whatever the weather *cue all-knowing sniggering* the fact remains, when the temperatures soar, do you know how to keep hydrated?
Here’s a refresher (thanks for this, AquAid compadré) about keeping yourself refreshed and hydrated through this blistering (and no, do not mean this in a sexy way) heat. To make it super easy, I’ve repeated keeping cool ideas for home, work and all around.
In the workplace:
- Stay hydrated! Set an alarm clock if necessary to make sure that you visit the water cooler as often as needs be to replenish your drinking water.
- Chill your wrists: Run cold water over your wrists for a minute every hour. Try not to do this using the cool water from the water cooler – it’s messy and I doubt the water cooler station is meant to be used as a private bathing area. Rather use the taps in the bathroom.
- Drink cool (but not icy cold) liquids to help lower your body temperature. Yep, the water cooler station is perfect for this.
- Turn off electronics: If they’re not being used, unplug electronic devices to keep them from generating unnecessary heat.
At home:
- Chill your wrists: Run cold water over your wrists for a minute every hour:
- Stay hydrated! Kids may not feel thirsty, but it’s essential to stay hydrated, so make sure young ones are getting lots of water. If you’re planning to leave the house, freeze some water bottles and take them with you.
- Drink cool (but not icy cold) liquids to help lower your body temperature.
- Try to keep water refrigerated prior to drinking, if possible.
- A little help from some fans: They may be little, but those battery-operated personal fans can make a big difference.
- Frozen flannel: Freeze a flannel and then plop it on the back of your and your family’s necks – instant refresher.
- Turn off electronics: If they’re not being used, unplug electronic devices to keep them from generating unnecessary heat.
- Stay downstairs: Downstairs areas tend to be cooler. Herd kids into an air-conditioned basement, if available. If not, stay on the ground floor.
- Don’t cook: Feed your family fresh foods such as salads and fruit. Not only will this cool the body’s core, it’ll also keep cooking-related heat from filling up the house.
- Postpone laundry: Plan to do heat-generating activities after the sun goes down. Do laundry at night, for example.
All around:
- Shut windows and pull down the shades when it is hotter outside. If it’s safe, open them for ventilation when it’s cooler.
- Avoid the heat: stay out of the sun and don’t go out between 11am and 3pm (the hottest part of the day) if you’re vulnerable to the effects of heat.
- Keep rooms cool by using shades or reflective material outside the windows. If this isn’t possible, use light-coloured curtains and keep them closed (metallic blinds and dark curtains can make the room hotter).
- Have cool baths or showers, and splash yourself with cool water.
- Drink cold drinks regularly, such as water and fruit juice. Avoid tea, coffee and alcohol.
- Stay tuned to the weather forecast on the radio or TV, or at the Met Office website.
- Plan ahead to make sure you have enough supplies, such as food, water and any medications you need.
- Identify the coolest room in the house so you know where to go to keep cool.
- Wear loose, cool clothing and a hat if you go outdoors.
- Check up on friends, relatives and neighbours who may be less able to look after themselves.
- People who have epilepsy or heart, kidney, or liver disease; are on fluid-restricted diets; or have a problem with fluid retention should consult a doctor before increasing liquid intake.
- If you’re sweating a lot, be quick to replace lost salts and minerals as well as water. Fruit juice or sports drinks with electrolytes are good choices, but do not take salt tablets unless directed to by your doctor. Taking calcium supplements, however, is a good idea.
- Drink cool (but not icy cold) liquids to help lower your body temperature. Try to keep water refrigerated prior to drinking, if possible.
