Electricity is one of the most essential part of our lives. Fans, Air conditioners, tube lights, Refrigerators, microwave ovens, washing machines, heaters, dishwashers, computers and phones require electricity to work and get charged efficiently. Not all of the world has proper access to electricity, about 16% of the world’s population i.e. 1.2 billion people, say 1 in every 7 people, have no or least access to electricity. A general alternative is that people use some fossil fuels in lamps i.e. they use kerosene, oil or paraffin lamps. Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources of energy. Moreover, they cause pollution too. To solve this problem, a device operating on renewable resources of energy such as solar energy and not on fossil fuels was required. In 2009, Solar Aid reached out to Therefore design consultancy for making a solar light worth of 5$. Designers Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves found by experiments that batteries and photovoltaic panels were extremely expensive for a making a 5$ solar lantern. So, they decided to look into different aspects. After number of experiments, they created a new product, which was crowdfunded for approximately 400,000$ and was begun to be used in 26 countries replacing kerosene lamps. This product was known as GravityLight in which, it should be hung on a wall or a ceiling and filling the bag with rocks and sand. As, bag would move down, gear box would drive a generator into creating LED for 20 minutes but it had few disadvantages, more weight would produce less amount of light for less amount of time and the bag required to be filled continuously. This led to a new invention known as NowLight which works manually, on solar panel and is a renewable source of energy.
WORKING:
- NowLight has cords attached to it, with just pulling the cord for a second, creates a minute of light and pulling the cord for about a minute or so, it creates hours of light. The gears inside are responsible for storing the charge inside battery.
- On sunny days, solar panel could be used to generate light because of solar energy.
- Manual charging by cord pulling- approximately 24 minutes.
- Main DC Power- 4 hours
- Solar panel- approximately 5 hours.
- A USB port is there to provide charging.
It is not only used as for people devoid of electricity access but is also used in adventure sports like camping and tracking etc. It can be used in boats and ships too; moreover, in disaster struck areas and at the time of power outrage.
Features-
- Instant light.
- Instant Power.
- 3200 mAh 8Wh battery.
- Powers up to 4 additional Sat Lights.
- Efficient and Easy to use.
- LED display indication of Power time remaining.
- Portable and multi-functional.
- 50 hours of light.
- Light temperature: 4000K.
- Water resistant: IP43.
- Input DC power manual charging.
- Output: USB Cable 5V/1.5A.
- Solar panel specs: 3W.
- Solar panel dimension: 23.8x14x1.7cm.
- Net weight: 2.64lbs (1.2kg).
- Dimension (with strap):9.8x80x11.5cm.
- Lumens are emitted by LED.
- It has 5 Levels of brightness- (in lumens) that is 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160.
NowLight is the successor of GravityLight because it covers up all the disadvantages of it. It will be available in market by summer of 2019, and ordering is going on. Would you still buy NowLight?
Pic Courtesy: Deciwatt Ltd
Writer & Editor: Venus Kohli