Guest essay by Eric Worrall
What could be better for providing light in a poor country with no electricity than a cheap kerosene lamp? A group of renewable entrepreneurs think they have found the answer – meet Gravity Light, a third world LED lighting system powered by lifting a bag containing 12Kg (27lb) of rocks every 20 minutes.
GravityLight Brings Clean Energy to Kenya
In Kenya it’s estimated that one in seven people live without access to electricity. Sixty eight percent of Kenyans rely on kerosene as their main source of energy. Kerosene is expensive as a fuel, and can be dangerous as a flammable in the household. GravityLight is one of several startup companies working to make clean and renewable energy and lighting available to families in Kenya and around the world. The foundation has partnered with Shell to send more than 3,000 lights to families in Kenya.
…
The light isn’t very bright. According to the specification;
| Product weight (empty bag) | 1.2 kg / 2.6 lbs |
| Max loaded bag weight | 12.5 kg / 27.5 lbs |
| Nominal Voltage | 2.7 V DC |
| Max current | <0.031 A |
| Max electrical power | 0.085 W |
| Luminous flux | 15 lm |
| Luminous efficiency | 208 lm/W |
| Colour temperature | 5000 K |
| Colour Rendering Index | > 70 |
| Beam angle | 147o |
Read more: Specification Document
But hey, the idea has an endorsement from Bill Gates. And think of the health benefits. Instead of studying for hours by the steady flame of a kerosene lamp, risking DVT from all that sitting down, every 20 minutes someone has to winch up a heavy bag of rocks.
Perhaps the benefits will spread to first world countries. Who needs an industrial economy and a steady supply of fossil fuel powered electricity, when you can have the healthy exercise benefits of owning a human powered gravity light?
There are better solutions already out there. D.light is one brand of small, inexpensive solar lamps. Out of curiosity I bought the S2 and S20 a few years ago and they still work fine. http://www.dlight.com/
The solar cell charges even during fairly cloudy days, and when charged, the S2 provides several hours of light you can read with, and the S20 has two brightness settings and gives more distributed light – also lasts longer. They don’t provide lumens ratings on their web site, but instead rate as “x times brighter than kerosene”. I haven’t bought a kerosene lamp to compare, but solar powered lights like this are a marked improvement for people at the bottom of the financial ladder, in that buying one gets you off the kerosene purchase (and smoke) and lets you extend daytime a bit.
They offer larger systems, too, and their top-end D30 system can also be bought on a pay-as-you-go approach being adopted in Africa and elsewhere, where the ubiquity of cell phones means you can be billed per usage even while living where the traditional grid might never reach.
There are a variety of companies and public/private partnerships getting basic illumination and charging capacity out to the non-grid public using the pay-as-you-go approach. People benefit, and it’s not simple charity – they are buying electricity instead of kerosene. Light, no smoke, no inhaled particulates. One step up the ladder.
We used a solar powered shed light and had good luck with it—it was surprisingly bright and lasted for quite some time. We put the charger inside in a window so hail wouldn’t get it.
Good idea with solar panel placement – window glass is a lot cheaper than silicon!
I find it a good idea, if it is cheap.
There exist cheap flash lights that are powered by hand. They are useful for everybody where shops are far away and shopping is done once a week and one runs out of batteries. I have two at the country house. Maybe I should experiment with a bag of rocks :).
This goes one step further. Not a bad idea for summer houses that still have outhouses here in Greece. . Or garages and store sheds without electricity extensions. 20 minutes is plenty to find what you are looking for.
Heres something that makes more sense that’s $20 American. Collapsible, waterproof, personally portable, gives 65 Lumens and goes 18hrs on a 7hr charge.
http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=Luci-Collapsible-Outdoor-Solar-Light-2-0&i=1018442
If a charity could post legit destinations where these could be sent I would buy one and ship it and challenge all to follow…
Interesting. I shall have to consider investing in one or two for our cabin! Thanks!
Every large village has a well. This could be operated by raising and lowering the bucket. It is still far short of what is needed.
Even if your idyllic view of African villages holds, the bucket goes down empty and comes up full. Not a lot of surplus energy for other purposes.
It’s human powered by the well operator, Einstein.
The Wikipedia article on kerosene lamps says that kerosene consumption in Africa for producing light is about the same as jet fuel consumption by the US. And if most of Africa’s kerosene lamps are of the flat wick kind (which I don’t know for sure), which are generally little or no brighter for nighttime illumination than this “bag of rocks” lamp, then a lot of kerosene that poor Africans buy can be used for cooking instead of for making light, and less animal dung gets burned for cooking so more animal dung gets used as crop fertilizer.
Wow, only $70 for a light that puts out 15 lm. You can buy a 3000 lm light on ebay for $1.
No, it’s pretty dumb. Give each kid a bike, attach an efficient generator and a lead acid battery, enough energy for a decent light and TV. The kids will charge it during the day and love doing it. Not only that you can send them to the corner Hut for milk and an hour of TV.
If we stuff the bag with chunks of coal, it would still be fossil fuel…
sorry to thread break Castro just passed away
RIP
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38114953
michael
I think it more likely that a special spot in hell finally opened up just for Fidelito. May Fidel Castro burn in hell forever.
+ a google
We know how the people of little Havana feel. We felt the same in the UK when Thatcher died. In fact the song “Ding Dong the witch is dead” reached number one.
“We felt the same in the UK when Thatcher died.”
No WE didn’t.
Although the Leftys probably did.
Gareth, comparing Thatcher to Castro is a disgusting insulting display of ignorance. Thatcher was elected, served until democratically removed, and despite your implications, left the UK better than she found it. Castro was a faux revolutionary kleptocratic tyrant who has left his country worse off, and only ended his rule after nearly 50 years when he finally assigned power to his equally tyrannical and corrupt brother. Bugger off.
Hey Hunter, you are obviously one of the political ignoramuses who don’t realise that some politicians kill their opponents like Castor did, others get other people to do it like Thatcher did.
Thatcher and other right wing politicians gave substantial support and arms to countries like South Africa , Argentina, Chile and others so that they could kill their citizens without being hassled by people who complained about “Human rights”
Castro did indeed infringe human rights as did many other countries. But he also did positive things which the usual human rights abusers did not do.
What did the far right regimes in latin America so beloved of Thatcher and Reagan do for their citizens? Like Castro they killed their opponents ( in the case of right wing regimes through death squads)
But did they provide universal education, healthcare and social services free at the point of delivery? Something that not even the US has yet quite achieved, though we have had it in the UK for some time, despite the actions of Thatcher to stop such services to citizens.
Well did they? Nope not a bloody thing.
But idiots like you never understood that. Castro had a lot to answer for, but he also took a poverty struck island from the hands of a dictator and the mafia and gave the citizens a basic level of care. That deserves some praise.
“you are obviously one of the political ignoramuses …”
No Gareth. That’s you actually, and all your traitorous Lefty mates.
Your Lefty friends such as Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Hitler – yes, HE WAS A SOCIALIST, no matter what you lying lot claim – killed several orders of magnitude more than any other political or religious ideology that has ever been.
Margaret Thatcher rescued this country from the lunatic Left trade union thugs – motto: “We will bring the country to its knees” – and massively improved the exonomy for decades.
Unlike you lot, she was a true patriot.
Were you around in the 1960s and 1970s, terminating in the 1979 ‘Winter of Discontent’?
I very much doubt it.
GP still cross about the result of the Cold War, thank God for Ronnie and Maggie.
Gareth once again illustrates just how far one can stretch reality in an attempt to justify the unjustifiable.
Reality check: “Gareth once again illustrates just how far one can stretch reality in an attempt to justify the unjustifiable.”
That’s what Leftys do…
Let’s not forget Che!, his brutal colleague.
But, many people, mainly women, weeped when Stalin died.
People are crazy.
All the brouhaha.
Fidel was just one of the more obvious.
Nothing to see here, move along.
Fidel’s passing?
Buy a box of Kleenex, offer it to a bunch of women, and you’ll get weeping-to-order!
Maybe they could get the total weight down for backpackers. Twenty-five pounds seems like a lot to carry.
Just borrow some rocks at destination. 😉
Kenya is an oil rich state. This is proof of the adage about aid to Africa being a black hole for money and resources.
“Aid is all about taking money from poor people in rich nations and giving it to rich people in poor countries.”.
Correct!
Andyj has made the best point. Mugabe gets the money the people get nothing. This is true of much of Africa. Western Socialists pay “Third World” Socialists and the workers of the world unite to pay for it.
So is Venezuela where they queue for toilet paper.
Yes, that is precisely what happens when you let socialists have any power at all.
God…. certainly hope none of the Progressives that run California get wind of this. We will be mandated to buy them to light our houses. They will probably also mandate improvements to be made to the gravity power generators to power all the appliances and water heaters in our house as well By 2050 your house will have to be 100% gravity powered our you will be paying a $20000 fee.
The climatocracy is less and less subtle in their arrogant and demeaning view of how those outside the climatocracy should live. The attitude expressed towards the poor by the climate obsessed deserves a third finger salute.
I did better by modifying a foot pump to be a generator charging a conventional led lantern cheaply and readily available from camping stores in the same way the wind up ones work but foot power was capable of far greater capacity for less effort. I think it was 150 lumens as well ( I Cant’t be sure as the label print has worn off.)so it has a reasonable light level. The foot powered generator was made entirely from scrapped stuff and I saw enough for two fair sized villages in a single trip to the recycle centre.
I did wonder about modifying one of those stepper exerciser things so you could do it while sitting down in an arm chair but never got round to it.
Why should the Kenyans be trapped at the equivalent of the kerosene lamp? Are they less worthy of the liberation of high quality, high quantity power than us in the West? It seems to me that only a bigoted misanthrope would answer on the affirmative
There is something to be said for working one’s way up. Americans didn’t go from kerosene lamps to 24/7 power in a week or a month or a year. Starting at the bottom allows people to work up slowly and adjust. It’s not keeping them trapped—thought that may be the goal of the greens—it’s realistically letting them grow and learn and move up.
Problem is the people of African countries should ALREADY have worked their way up to it. At the end of European Colonial rule most of them HAD productive industry and agriculture, they were already at and above the kerosene lamp level of technology.
I keep asking this question, been asking for 30 years, and never get an answer. How many times do you have to tell people to boil their drinking water, do not urinate/defecate in springs/creeks/rivers/lakes? What is the magic number? Apparently we haven’t reached it, we have been telling them these things for nearly 200 years.
Great! Feelgood Green virtue signalling for techies.
will the world ever be rid of these crazy marxists ?
pheeeew i cant believe enough people have awaken
to give us another bite at the freedom apple
Forrest Gardener — Remember Pet Rocks? When the fad passed stores were stuck with them. A little repackaging and they can clear their storerooms. Pet Rocks, now more than just a companion! They will bring light into your life! Etc, etc, etc.
Eugene WR Gallun
(I’m not goin’ there . . ; )
Andyj’s remark about aid is taking money from poor people in rich countries to give to rich people in poor countries is sadly so true far too often and excellently phrased.
Can I just mention something to the gentleman who uses kerosene mantle lamps. Yes they are very bright indeed and surprisingly so compared to wick types, but this brightness is achieved by a reaction in the mantle using Thorium to achieve incandescence. In the process it seems that alpha particles are a by product. There are health warnings about not using them in confined spaces.
I am not advocating using kerosene if electricity can be provided, but kerosene heating is efficient in cold climes and for cooking kerosene stoves are far better for health than dung fires.
Modern gas mantles do not use thorium, but alternatives (that are at least a little less efficient) such as yttrium.
Dammit, I will repeat what i said up top. WINDUP WATCHES! There is a fortune to be made. We can get Al Gore in for a piece of the pie. Next speech he gives he dramatically pauses halfway through — and winds up his watch! What an impact! Greenies will be falling over each other to purchase the new green status symbol! A WINDUP WATCH!! We can go weird — windup Mickey Mouse watches! Go high end — the windup Rolex! There is a fortune to be made here!
Eugene WR Gallun
Having worked a lot in very poor parts of Africa, think this is a pretty good idea, but wonder how people whose job is picking up gravel off the road and selling it to the guys making concrete blocks will be able to afford this.
A quick look at the interweb on how much these things cost. It appears you can’t buy them. You can only make donations to organizations that will buy and distribute them in Africa.
I smell a rat.
http://www.tecnoconect.org/product.php?whichKey=128#
I smelled it too, I doubt you could give the things away in “first world” countries . .
They state target costs of 5$. This is affordable in africa and an equal price to a kerosene Lamp.
And best thing is to produce as much as possible of it in Africa.
To donate something is a dumb thing. Make things simple and cheap and people will buy it, if they agree to the idea.
Agreed. You may have to donate a few to get things started, but figure out a way to involve the people in future production, and you have something going. It’s not charity that way and the people have a stake in it.
In Laos the other day there was a shallow river which people had dammed with stones and rigged little homemade paddles generating a few volts for the kampong. Thick wires, less loss. Pathetic. They need a coal fired power station NOW.
Flintstones, meet the Flintstones!
Children sitting next to a kerosene lamp for hours trying to study is not a great health benefit. The lamp may not have a poor light, but the light is infinitely better than a lamp when you have o money for oil. Instead of whining that it is not perfect, how about helping to develop the idea along with other idea for free lighting sources in poor countries Or are you worried about losing the excellent profit made on selling paraffin to poor nations?
Several people have already mentioned a better idea, Gareth; Solar/battery lights. I got some for 2$ apiece, and I’d rather have one of them than this intermittent contraption.
How long will battery of your 2$ Lamp last if used on a dayly base? I guess its finished before one year.
And how many hours it will shine? In Africa sunset is nearly exact 6pm, so you need about five hours
And how good is the light for working or studiying.
I worked in Afica seven years as a development worker, and the battery has always been the most vulnerable part of solar lighting.
Johannes,
Well of course they won’t last forever, but neither will that gravity powered one. Replacing the battery once a year would not cost much . .
The brightness of mine seems to be about what this new thing is offering (dim), but mine are VERY small and cheap. I’m thinking it would be best to beef it up some, and design it for the specific use, and make the battery easy to replace.
Oh, and five hours (total, mine have an on/off switch) average per night doesn’t see unrealistic in the tropics given the sun is always high in the sky. More solar cell area, more charge and or brightness . . from my limited experience it seems a natural fit . .
Johannes: There’s also the wind-up lights, as mentioned by several above.
Let them lift rocks first, then they can have cake!
These are human powered lights. The need is based on the inventor’s question (from the video), “What do you do if you’re not going to store power?” Why aren’t you going to store power? Maybe the question should be what is the best way to replace kerosene as an energy source for light.
There is already a supply chain for kerosene. People have the money to buy kerosene. How about using the existing supply chain and financial resources to distribute … batteries?
The bottom line is that this may be a good idea but unless users are willing to pay for it instead of buying kerosene or batteries or hand cranked generators, it’s not a good idea. So far, throughout the world, chemistry has won out over muscle in the market for lighting the darkness.
And finally, why is this better than the human-wound-spring-powered clockworks inside each all the “Big Ben” alarm clocks that were popular around the world for decades?