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Shining bright: Falling bag brings GravityLight’s power
London start-up firm Deciwatt has won £150,000 to develop its gravity-powered lamp, which aims to provide an affordable and safe alternative to kerosene lamps that are used by millions of people around the world living without access to electricity.
The firm was named national winner of the 2015 Shell Springboard programme and awarded the money to take the improved version of its GravityLight into the next stages of commercialisation.
Caroline Angus, commercial director of Deciwatt, said: “Support from Shell Springboard has come at a critical moment. The funding will help us convert existing links in the relief market into orders and sales, as well as further refining our technology. We are targeting three key sectors across the developing and developed worlds – kerosene replacement, humanitarian relief, and disaster preparedness. Shell’s support will allow us to pursue all three.”
British industrial designer Martin Riddiford and co-inventor Jim Reeves created the pineapple-sized lamp, which is powered by a 10-12kg bag that falls 1.8m in 30 minutes. As the bag falls, this powers an input drive sprocket which rotates slowly at 1rpm. A polymer geartrain running through the product steps up the speed through successive stages and drives a DC generator at thousands of rotations per minute, powering the small LED light that shines slightly brighter than most kerosene lamps. Once the weighted bag reaches the floor, it must be lifted to repeat the process.
The GravityLight will eliminate the significant carbon emissions created by the kerosene lamps it aims to replace and provide a safe light that can be used at any time, with no risk of burns, house fires or kerosene fume-related illnesses. The device has no running costs, so would pay for itself within a few months or weeks, freeing people from fuel poverty.
The GravityLight has been trialled in 26 countries and received positive user feedback, with 90% agreeing they would use the product instead of traditional kerosene lamps. Reeves said: “We have since then been on a swift path to production to take it to scale with a significantly lower cost. It is also more robust, more effective, more efficient, and the design has been configured to be more easily usable for women and children.
“The Shell Springboard funding will allow us to dramatically change gear and accelerate growth.”
The Shell funding supports Deciwatt to launch a radio attachment to the main GravityLight unit that will be vital when expanding into disaster relief and humanitarian markets, and safety features have been included to deal with unexpected additional loads. Most significant has been an improvement which means the LED light is now able to be kept on continuously, even when re-charging.
The company plan to produce the first units of the new version of the GravityLight this Autumn. It will then be rolled out to trial markets, potentially in sub-saharan Africa, South East Asia and the Indian sub-continent. The firm also aims to launch a version, through internet sales initially, in North America in answer the demand for low-cost “emergency provision” for families preparing for power outages as a result of natural disasters.
To support the firm’s ability to launch the new version of the light, the GravityLight team
will soon be launching another crowdfunding campaign.