GENIUS INNOVATION – GRAVITY LIGHTS…INSPIRED BY A NEED IN KENYA

Posted By admin on Sep 28, 2016 | 0 comments

Posted By Deodatus Bijengsi on Sep 28, 2016 | 0 comments

Jim Reeves (yea I know, but no, not that one) in 2013 founded the company Deciwatt together with Martin Riddifords. They are both British. Martin regretted that he had not done any charitable work overseas as a youth. So the gravity light was his way of making up for it. Jim said he had visited Kenya where in many areas the bush lamp is the only source of lighting at night. Yep, I still remember the holidays we had in my village back in the day, where it was the bush lamp though and through. There is electricity now but there is still a vast population there who still depend on bush lamp for lighting. As it is in my village in the North West region of Cameroon, so it is with many developing countries especially in Africa. This was the need that drove this innovative product of Jim and Martin.

What is this Gravity Lights.

These bush lamps run on kerosene. So there is a running cost to this source of lighting and there is also the issue of pollution. The Gravity takes care of both issues.

Bush Lamp Lighting.

Little girl studies under poor lighting provided by Bush lamp (Kerosene lamp)

So basically it is a light that is powered by a weight that hangs on it and drops down slowly providing energy for to light the LED. It is fascinating to know that there is no operating cost needed to use the light, all you need is a bag of earth or stone – it’s crazy genius!!! You will however have to manually lift the bag every 30mins but hey, you can have everything right?

The Gravity Light

How much does it cost?

The cost is also another interesting aspect of this gravity light. It is intended to sell under $10 and yet it is the hope of Deciwatts that with sufficient funding they will be able to bring the price to bellow $5. This will approximately three months of kerosene used in the bush lamps, hence with after three months of use, the gravity light will provide free lighting forever after. The mechanism is also such that the device can be maintained locally.