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?
Think of where would these countries be without Western civilization.
great idea. i’m gonna start a kickstarter campaign to raise funds to develop the “gravity powered hello kitty vibrator”….wanna sign up?
this (ridicule) post was no good one and the forum an echo chamber for poeple not understanding how life in rural Africa is. Vera often no cash availble / only after harvest, Mile away from a store. Expensive kerosene.
And some guys talk about cheap coal power or diesel engines! Buy these from 20-50$ per month or 100$ per year after harvest….A family need ligth now, not in 20 or fifty years, when electric supply is finally there.
The alternatve to move to the slums of big cities with electric suppply, but earning money through prositution, illegal work and crime.
Having a light in the evening may be a part to keep them there. And about fiftenn lumen as compared to a candle:
If you direct them with an angel of 60 or 45° toward a table, you get a 10 brighter light there compared to the 360° of a candle.
Any idea is not better than no idea when it’s the wrong idea.
(In plainer terms, throwing in any old idea and trying to say it helps is not good if it doesn’t help. Has anyone actually taken these to Africa and tested the idea large scale? Cook stoves were a hard sell. Old ways resist change and this is a huge change.)
Yep. Wrong ideas have led the human race far astray throughout our history.
RC? In the late ’80s I did time in central africa. Yea, people got no real concept, that has changed a bit, with so many Americans having been exposed to the middle east during the last 15 years. Still, we are all able to come back to The World. I have lived without running water and spotty/unreliable electricity right here in CONUS so I feel for them. All the same they got to fix their problems.
It’s good to see that some commenters are well aware of both the expense and safety hazards posed by kerosene lamps. (see details at: http://www.lightsforlife.org/impact_of_lighting_poverty_on_children). Many children are burned each year by kerosene lamps and candles. Even dwellings are burned accidentally. When I was young, my sister’s hair caught fire when she was reading by candle light. Much safer are a number of solar powered lighting devices that have become increasingly available in regions without electricity, but these are not necessarily cheap. My phone, iPad and three cameras are powered by a 20-watt solar panel that charges a lithium power pack. Total cost is more than $100. A 100-watt panel and a much bigger power pack can power my laptop. Cost exceeds $400. Cheaper systems that power only a single white LED lamp can be found online.
Forrest and Johannes
Ai agree about the risks averted and the superiority of the high tech solutions. I was just handed as a memento a solar powered key fob that has two high intensity LEDs. It is made by Poly Solar, a company in Beijing. It has three small batteries in it. It is somewhat like a garden light in that it has a small solar panel on one side and an LED switch. It is far brighter than a garden lamp.
In Africa it has been shown that when students have light after sundown they study about 2 hours more per day.
LEDs are one invention that really transforms lives. Like the cell phone, it greatly reduces costs, saves lives and makes people happy.
A single bright while LED draws about 3 watts. Several are used to make an LED lightbulb.
You’d need to put about 30 GravityLights together to power that LED.
Use a 3W LED, just feed it less than the rated current.
“Corruption” is a term bandied-around so often that it has lost its bite.
We need a refresher, as a large % of readers have no clue of the obstacles to getting 1st. World money to 3rd. World recipients.
It is a beautiful, and eminently sellable Charity-concept in principle but the reality of getting most (any?) of it to the village-leaders is another matter.
Just as emergency food supplies are ‘taxed’ at successive road-blocks between (air)port and village, so does cash transfers. MOney sent for funding water-wells, or buying diesel-gen-sets will get there — if the recipients are lucky — at cents in the $.
To say nothing on the tax imposed on the importation of foreign manufactured goods, administerd by ….. ? guess who??
I’m just mentioning this ‘cos this wd seem to be the reality of altruistically trying to help peasants in 3rd. W. couhtries. The crooks get their substantive cut first …. coming & going.
I wish I had answers ……. Any thoughts?
dimmer switch? nuthin sexy about sweat. on a guy.
Sounds great for those who want to get off the power grid. How much weight would be required to provide power to the typical window air conditioner for an hour of a typical frig for a day. or to cook dinner? What would be the cost of these power units on a KW basis?
You want a kilowatt? The device in this article is .085 Watts. A kilowatt 24/7 using this technology would need a team of two horses on a treadmill. They can probably work at that rate for 4 hours, so you need 6 teams of 2 to get 24 hour power. That’s 12 horses. Then add the full-time horse minders, the horse feed, shelter, and disposal of waste from 12 horses. Call it 4 people full time needed to support the horses.
Or you could buy a 1.6 KW generator that uses 1.1 liter/hour to fuel. http://hondapower.net.pk/applicationUsageChart.htm But that uses evil petroleum fuel and we can’t allow that.
I, for one, am extremely grateful that I can flip a switch and get a kilowatt whenever I want it. I am also grateful that I live where my government doesn’t prevent me from using that kilowatt. (California was heading in that direction though) I have also installed an off-grid power system using a small PV array, a forklift battery and a 1.2 KW sine wave inverter. It was FAR more expensive than grid power but there was no grid where I needed it.
Real horse power, that’s the ticket. I live in California. To not be cruel to animals, the state should mandate i acre per horse and at least every other day each hourse should be pastured. All of the hourse’s food must come from pasture land maintained by each household. So California should mandate that each household maintain a minimum of 24 hourses for power and 25 acres of pasture land to support the 24 hourses.. California will have to very significantly lower its population to make that happen. In my case, the state needs to come on and get rid of most of my neighbours and to convert their homes and access roads into 25 acres of pasture land to be added to my property and facilities, like a barn and stable to support the horses. I am poor so the state needs to provide personel to take care of the horses and to run the 1kw hourse actuated power system. The state needs to do this for every poor person like me that decides to remain in California. I also want the state to provide me with an all electric car and a roof top solar charging system to charge the car and to provide additional energy for my home so I can cook, run a refrigerator and on occasion warm and or cool my home. The solar energy system must be such that it works off grid and has sufficient energy storage capacity, The solar energy system must also be suplemented with a wind energy system. I am poor and cannot afford to pay anything for such a system but all equipment installed on my property I must own free and clear and without any negative tax consequences. I am willing to do my part and allow such changes to my property but the state must first do their part and provide what I request and without raising by taxes.
It is great that your have done well moving away from California but i still live here and cannot move away from the costal zone where I live due to asthma and alergy problems. I also need the state to come and build at least a hundred foot sea wall to protect my property from sea level rise and from possible title waves and storm surges. The seawall will have to be built form Corona Del Mar to Palos Verdes and provide protection for all harbors and boating facilities in the area. I also want the State to provide a hign speed rail station within walking distance from my home and another station within walking distance of my daughter’s home in Northern California so I can visit her anytime I want and not have to use my car. Since I am poor the state will have to provide me with a pass that will allow me to ride the high speed rail system anytime, free of charge. I am not asking for much.
Stupid concept. Just throw some NiMH cells in and hand crank generator, and you can have hours of light without recharging. Can also use solar to charge during the daytime.
https://www.google.at/search?q=Kuckucksuhr&oq=Kuckucksuhr&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.6495j0j4&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
In the end we’re told
renewables = Kuckucksuhren.
Greenies always ask me how long it takes me to recharge my Smart car. “Usually about 3 to 5 minutes.”, I respond, casually. Then, they want to know how far it will go on a charge. “About 400 miles at 70 mph.”, I again calmly explain, which seems to mystify them. They rarely begin the asking with, “Is it electric?”, which ruins my joke. Some call me a liar. Some shake their heads and simply walk away as I must be crazy. My Smart runs on gas….(c;]
Larry, I always park in spaces with signs for “energy efficient” vehicles. When questioned I respond”I efficiently put gas in the tank and it then is efficiently burned so I can efficiently drive where I am going”. Leaves them sputtering every time. The “Pork Eating Infidel” and “All out of F*cks to Give” bumper stickers really should clue them in.
So, this is intended to be used in a poor country. The weight to be used is rocks, which are easily available. That makes sense. The maximum loading of rocks, for this light, is 12 kg. Since this is a poor country, how do they weigh out the rocks? Is there a scale built-in to the light? How much does it degrade the mechanism, to put too much weight on it? How easily can the gears be stripped out? If there is a lot of dust in the air, does that affect the mechanism? Has this been field-tested for several years, or merely assembled in a pristine laboratory?
eliminating the kerosene lamp is a great idea – kerosene is expensive, taking a high proportion of incomes in developing countries and contributing to fuel poverty…. it is also a health hazard and safety risk.
but the solution is already being rolled out throughout Africa and Asia – commercially sold solar LED lamps (with mobile phone chargers)
https://solar-aid.org/
https://cleantechnica.com/2015/05/12/solar-lights-eradicating-kerosene-lamps-africa/
(many other examples)
Or you can go one stage further with solar home systems and other improvements:
http://sustainnovate.ae/en/innovators-blog/detail/breaking-energy-poverty-without-damaging-nature
I’ve often suggested LED lights for the developing world in these columns – and have been roundly criticised for it…
Strange that this seems acceptable so long as the word ‘solar’ is not attached to the light…
As long as the LEDs are made in China, or someplace like that, I’m fine with LEDs. The process for making them is quite dirty and nasty. That was the big advantage to incandescent bulbs, they were relatively clean to make. Of course, the big problem with an LED is making sure the resistor/LED combination is balanced, or else the LED will blow if there is a spike in the current. Companies cut costs by using one resistor for a group of LEDs, and that just means the whole group will be taken out at the same time. I have some light panels that have hundreds of LEDs, but they are in groups of 8, attached to a resistor. Over time, I have watched the panels slowly darken, as groups of 8 stop working.
I think it is a great idea! I’d love to use it as the power source for my son’s computer when he’s playing video games.
Remember, we are talking about very poor people. If we can save them a bit of $$ by not having to buy kerosene, then all the better.
Giving them sh*t that does not help is sh*t that does not help them. Period. Full stop. Want to help them? Kill the f*cking socialists.