Conceptual device meant to provide poor with alternative to kerosene lamps
Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves, a pair of designers from London, recently grabbed headlines when they published their concept device, GravityLight, to web-based funding site Indiegogo. The reason why the two got so much attention is because of the novel approach they took to developing a safe, affordable product: simply put, it’s an LED lamp that runs off of nothing but gravity.
The GravityLight is an LED lamp that gets powered by nothing but gravity.
The reason why Riddiford and Reeves created the lamp is to provide people in third world countries an alternative to using kerosene lamps, which have long been known to cause burns, lung ailments and other issues.
The lamp is considerably simple to operate — a cable hangs from a gear holding a plastic bag filled with dirt or rocks and the energy produced from the bag being pulled down is enough to power an LED bulb for up to a half-hour.
GravityLight comes with very simple components.
The light from GravityLight comes from an LED bulb.
Major benefits
On their Indiegogo page, the two note that in the world today there are more than a billion and a half people with no access to a reliable electricity source. When it becomes dark, the most popular form of light comes from kerosene lamps. This is a problem for a number of reasons, perhaps most notably the fact that people around the lamp are regularly inhaling smoke from the burning kerosene. According to experts, this is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Naturally, this leads to very high lung cancer rates.
Additionally, millions of people are burned by these lamps every year. This happens when the lamps accidentally get upended, an easy mistake to make in the dark.
There’s also the problem of all the carbon dioxide being added to the atmosphere: Riddiford and Reeves write on their page that there’s about 244 million tons released every year from these lamps.
Lastly, burning kerosene is a financial obligation for a lot of families: just the kerosene alone can consume 10 to 20% of a household’s income. This sort of burden can trap a family in a permanent state of sustenance living, buying what they can, only when they can.
It’s a dim picture, but the GravityLight solves all of these problems. Riddiford and Reeves have spent the past four years going over the design and building several different lighting options before deciding the GravityLight to be the best solution. Here’s the video they put together for their Indiegogo page:
Outlook
Riddiford and Reeves’ original goal was to bring in $55,000 in total funding. They have since doubled that amount and are moving close to actually tripling it at the time this article is being written.
The GravityLight is expected to sell for $10 when it hits shelves. Once things are ramped up, the cost will likely drop to $5. ■
Learn more at indiegogo.com/projects/282006
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