Gravity Powered Light May End The Use of Kerosene Lamps

IT IS A FACT THAT 20% OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY

With a growing world population, this number is projected to remain the same for the next 20 years. Without electricity, most of these people have no other option but to use kerosene lamps to light their homes. A typical lamp is made by taking an empty bottle or tin can, putting a wick in the middle, filling it with fuel and lighting it. As you can imagine, this is very dangerous and accidents often happen. Furthermore, in these impoverished areas, the cost of fuel can eat up to 30% of a households’ income. Scientists have also found that breathing the toxic kerosene fumes is equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day.

British scientists Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves who want to help the world get rid of kerosene lamps worked on GravityLight as a side project for four years. GravityLight is an innovative device that generates light from gravity.

GravityLight is unique – it doesn’t need batteries or sunlight and costs nothing to run. It uses a bag filled with rocks or earth, attached to a cord, which slowly descends and drives an electric generator, which continuously powers an LED.

It takes seconds to lift the weight that powers GravityLight creating 20 minutes of light on its descent.

GravityLight provides:

Instant light, any time

There’s no need to charge it in advance, it’s ready when you need it.

With no running costs

Meaning that GravityLight pays for itself within weeks of switching from a kerosene lamp.

No sun or batteries needed

No batteries mean that GravityLight can be stored indefinitely, without the risk of batteries degrading.
With no need for the sun, it can be used whatever the weather outside.

The company have set up a pledge campaign in order to set up a manufacturing facility in Kenya. They expect to start shipping African made products in July this year.

For more information, visit GravityLight.

By Julie Allen

28 Jan