A lot of people are caught up in the holiday buzz right now. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t bought presents for someone on my list from Ohio Power Tool in the last week (shameless plug), but it is important to remember that there are people with much bigger problems than trying to pick out an extra item so your order qualifies for $25 off and free shipping, or how long the line at the Honeybaked Ham store was yesterday (problems I have recently faced).
The video below gives some details about a project a few British electronics designers undertook in their spare time to try to bring sustainable light to the developing world. However, instead of building another solar powered solution they made a “person” or “gravity-powered” light that runs on the energy created from lifting a bag of ballast (possibly dirt or rocks) off the ground and letting it fall. The video says the light can run for up to 30 minutes, and it is configured to be able to run other small devices.
Basically, this thing is cool enough that I would put it in my own house, and it provides a list of benefits over commonly used kerosene and solar lamps in the developing world. All in all, a very noble undertaking by a handful of Brits to try to make the world a better place.
They are currently looking for some funding to try to get 1000 lights in the hands of people in the developing world, as well as R&D funds to build a “Mark 2” light, which will boast a longer run time and a radio.
The GravityLight indiegogo project can be found here, and a donation of $50 or more will get a light shipped to your door (in the US or UK) if I interpreted the details correctly. So maybe, when you flip on your light switch so you can find the Kohl’s cash that expires today and run out to the store to do some shopping (another thing I have done recently), you can think a little bit about people that don’t have the luxury of “flipping on a light switch,” and throw a few bucks toward a project that is trying to help them.
