Gravity Light

By crowdfunding 399,560 US dollar was raised for funding the tooling, manufacture and distribution of at least 1000 gravity powered lights. Those are a gift to villagers in both Africa and. The follow-up research will tell us how well the lights met their needs, and enable us to refine the design for a more efficient MK2 version. Once we have proved the design, we will be looking to link with NGOs and partners to distribute it as widely as possible. When mass produced the target cost for this light is less than $5.

The cause
Over 1.5 billion people worldwide have no reliable access to electricity. They rely on biomass fuels (mostly kerosene) for lighting.The World Bank estimates that, as a result, 780 million women and children inhale smoke which is equivalent to smoking 2 packets of cigarettes every day. 60% of adult, female lung-cancer victims in developing nations are non-smokers. The fumes also cause eye infections and cataracts, but burning kerosene is also more immediately dangerous: 2.5 million people a year, in India alone, suffer severe burns from overturned kerosene lamps. And burning kerosene for lighting can consume 10 to 20% of a household's income. And it produces 244 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

Dynamo powered
Lower cost self-contained lamps are becoming more widely available, but batteries are the weak link, because they are expensive and deteriorate through use and over time. Very often, when buying a low cost solar lamp with an inbuilt rechargeable battery, a full third of what you're paying for is the battery, and you will need to replace it every few years. Assuming you can get a new battery... The capacity is often reduced to save money which limits the use time, after which there is no light. With GravityLight, however, it only takes a few seconds to lift the weight, which creates enough energy for half an hour of light, whenever it is needed. It has no batteries to run out, replace or dispose of. It is completely clean and green.Because there are no running costs after the initial low cost purchase, it has the potential to lift people out of poverty, allowing them to use the money they have saved to buy more powerful solar lighting systems in the future.Where will you use yours?

Credentials
We are Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves, London based designers who have spent 4 years developing GravityLight as an off-line project. We work for therefore.com, which has over 20 years of experience in designing and developing hand held computing and communication products for a host of pioneers including Psion, Toshiba, NEC, TomTom, Inmarsat, ICO, Sepura, Racal Acoustics, Voller Energy, FreePlay and SolarAid.We’re using a tried and tested manufacturer who has the right expertise to make GravityLight. We have some links to partner organisations in Africa and need to do the same for India. If you're part of an organisation and would like to get involved then please contact us. We are particularly looking for contacts in South America.