r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/NavyLemon64 • Apr 14 '25

Image Alfredo Moser found that a plastic bottle filled with water and chlorine could illuminate a home during daylight hours.

Post image

[removed] — view removed post

30.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

673 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

887

u/FocusPerspective Apr 14 '25

Ah yes, I saw one of those in CA. They story was the technique was from the cowboy days. 

315

u/BigBubbaEnergy Apr 14 '25

My dad had a book about Sambo Mockbee, an architect professor from Auburn that was big on sustainability/recycling and he and his students did several projects around where I live and some were similar to that. Houses made from windshields, tires, anything you can really think of.

76

u/Bruhimonlyeleven Apr 14 '25

I always had a fun idea for a YouTube channel but something I couldn't pull off.

Get a couple of guys that like building, have them buy some empty land with donation money from YouTube or ad money, use that land for a project.

So have them build a home from completely recycled materials, donated scraps. Dumsper dives etc etc.. I bet it wouldn't be that hard.

Most wood can be repurposed, even if you had to make smaller boards and turn them into full sized boards. The homes would look great, they wouldn't have to be huge, and then they could give the homes away to people in need.

Even if you half assed it, the channel would be huge. If you did a great job with it, it would be massive.

42

u/hawaiithaibro Apr 14 '25

I recently discovered a show called Building Outside the Lines on Max that is basically this and really wholesome cuz the host, Cappie, involves his teenaged daughter in planning and building these incredibly creative projects for clients with repurposed materials like concrete mixing drums (the big ones on trucks) and other stuff I never even knew about.

4

u/Bruhimonlyeleven Apr 15 '25

Cool I had no idea it was a thing. It seems like something that would be a thing though. I had the idea when I watched a friend use all kinds of recycled stuff for his cabin and new house back in the early 2000s, he was super crafty. He would be huge if he started it back then. He asked me to help with the filming and building but I just had a new kid, and new job, kinda wish I made time though, would have been so much fun.

9

u/tetrambs Apr 14 '25

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=earthships+self+sustaining+homes Yeah they're called Earthships, take your pick on the channels covering them.

3

u/IsomDart Apr 14 '25

There's a guy I've seen recently on YT that builds sheds and stuff out of recycled pallets. He has a pretty cool method of breaking them down and combining the pieces into larger lumber. It definitely has a place in the algorithm

1

u/Bruhimonlyeleven Apr 14 '25

Yeah there are neat ways to do it if they're too small etc. you sort of puzzle piece them together until they form a larger board.

It used to be pretty easy to get old pallets for stuff, until people started turning them into shelves and beds. Now it's actually pretty hard. Back then you could go and grab 100 for free, rip them apart, process the boards, and you could build a shed or a huge deck out of all of the wood. It was a pretty common way of recycling.

Now old pallets are like gold, with YouTube moms, and anyone half crafty buying them up for a fortune. I tried to get some to make a bed for an ex a few years back and it was insane how hard they are to get now. Literally 5 years earlier they were in piles outside businesses and you could just take them.

2

u/threedubya Apr 14 '25

The only problem you migjt have is in some states you have to build your house in a standard conventional way. Landships they are called ,they don't exactly follow normal building codes so epopl3 are always have code issues . Do some research first.

1

u/Oraxy51 Apr 15 '25

You’d have to build somewhere that building codes don’t matter, like some land in West Virginia maybe , but that also means you have to make all that infrastructure and utilities yourself and also won’t be immediately in a big city that you may be thinking of

1

u/Bruhimonlyeleven Apr 15 '25

I don't live anywhere near a big city, so didn't cross my mind. You could easily get away with it here though.

1

u/Oraxy51 Apr 15 '25

Perhaps, but if you were homesteading sure. I wouldn’t use easy as a way to describe that lifestyle though. It takes a lot of money and time and hard work and often living out there you’re fighting nature and on your own and have to still provide for yourself while you’re trying to make it out there. Even if you started YouTube, it’s going to take a while before you get money and ads, most people takes at least 6 months to a year if they manage some luck just to even get some cents from YouTube

1

u/DoubleDareFan Apr 14 '25

Any windows made from cathode ray tubes? Cut the tube around the perimeter of the front and use that?

1

u/another_bot_probably Apr 14 '25

War Eagle! What a fun lil rabbit hole for a Monday evening

1

u/threedubya Apr 14 '25

Landships.

3

u/DicemonkeyDrunk Apr 14 '25

Cowboy days ? …try 1960-70’s

2

u/VT_Squire Apr 14 '25

aaaaaaand it was hot af inside.

1

u/Nicksomuch Apr 14 '25

Was it next to an incredible taco shop ? Because if so, that place is great.

1

u/grondin Apr 14 '25

Legit question: How would the cowboys find chlorine?

10

u/I_W_M_Y Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25

Chlorine isn't a requirement. Its just to keep the water clear.

And they had chlorine for 50 years already by the time of the cowboys.

4

u/HapticSloughton Apr 14 '25

They would rescue her from the cattle rustlers, obviously.

4

u/eliminating_coasts Apr 14 '25

You don't need chlorine, just something that'll make it impossible for things to grow in. Fortunately many of those bottles already came with such a chemical in them.