Hong Kong Company Develops Solar-Powered Lightbulb

hussain_mkj writes "A Hong Kong-based company, Nokero, has introduced what it claims is the world's first solar powered lightbulb. Nokero is trying to replace traditional kerosene lamps in developing countries with its solar-powered N100 LED lightbulbs. The bulb is about the same size as normal incandescent bulbs, and will shine for two hours when charged for a day. The company claims that the new bulb is five times as bright as a kerosene lamp and uses 1/200th the energy. It will cost $15 for one and $480 for 48."

Re:Bulbs don't consume a lot of power ?

[sadness203]

It already exist, in another form.
SODIS [wikipedia.org]

Re:Not a first, I think...

[besalope]

In my International Management course we learned about an initiative to work with 3rd world countries to help provide 1 Watt Solar Panels, rechargeable batteries, and LED arrays as kerosene replacements. The systems only cost about $100 at the time (2 years or so ago) and it paid itself off in about 5 months due to the price of kerosene.

Bogolights are also good ...

[jrifkin]

I have owned a couple of Boglights for a few years now and they've been solidly reliable. They can last up to 6 hours on a days charge, they work as both a flashlight and an area light, they give 6 levels of light, and are designed for developing countries. However, they cost twice as much, $30 a light. This page has a lot of technical information about them, http://www.bogolight.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=BOGO-BUYONESN2&Show=TechSpecs [bogolight.com]

Portable lamp

[LongearedBat]

During the day you hang it from the metal clip on a branch (with no foliage) or a string (like a washing line). Or, simply place it on a safe surface somewhere that catches the sun.

At night you either hang it from the metal clip or screw it in. By the picture, it looks like there is a black "on" button at the top that may work such that screwing it in further switches it on (would have to remove the clip though).

Ikea buy one give one

[xzvf]

Ikea was selling a $19.99 solar reading lamp that if you bought one, one was sent to Africa. Even if they didn't make a profit, that means the light cost significantly less than $15 dollars individually. Plus the LED is bright and lasts six hours easily.

Re:Solar Panels on the top of the bulb

[hedwards]

Because during the day typically they're working trying to eek out enough to survive. And in the evening when it's too dark to work it's a great time to try and learn something. You know better oneself.

Replacement term for 3rd world

[xzvf]

Diplomats adjust terms to keep from offending nations where people have little income and limited freedom. During the cold war there was the 1st world (NATO, neutral western Europe, Japan), 2nd world (Warsaw Pact), and 3rd world (everyone else). Late in the cold war, 3rd world was replaced by developing nations to counter the Soviet goal of creating Communist revolutions, and indicate the new US policy economic development (replacing the anti-Communist strongman policy). After the cold war saw the creating of the emerging economies (BRIC {Brazil, Russia [after deflating the CIA myth of a Soviet economy as large as the US], India, and China}, Asian tigers {primarily South Korea and Singapore} and former purgatory countries {South Africa [Aparthid] and Israel [peace treaty with Egypt]. The former 1st world is now called developed. So now we have Developed, Emerging and Developing. Of course people closer to the academic world will know the newest buzzwords.

Re:New?

[Nikkos]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Westinghouse-Solar-6-Piece-Pinnacle-Garden-Light-Set/13446849 [walmart.com]

dunno which 3.99 one's he's talking about, but it's feasible considering the cost of these.

Re:Cool

[MadnessASAP]

It does, they found that requiring daytime running lights increased fuel consumption by something like 5%, not a lot but when you're counting pennies.

Re:Cool

[Umuri]

I'll bite the karma bullet on this, you're being relatively shortsighted and blind in your insinuation they are stupid.

It actually does improve your vision.
I'll give you a simple experiment. Go outside at night, shine a bright flashlight(halogen makes this work better) at the ground. stare at that flashlight for a good 5 minutes.
Now turn the stupid thing off, and wait 5 minutes.
Once your eyes adjust suddenly you

The light forces your eyes to restrict the light comming in, killing your darkvision. Yes it lets you see the small patch it illuminates, but seeing anything to either side or beyond that is much harder.
Compare that to the normal nightvision a person has on a decent night with a moon, and you can see a mile easy.

Yes, lights help when there's no moon, but if you have a moon, lighting destroys your night vision.

Re:Solar Panels on the top of the bulb

[dbIII]

Hence that four angled panels on the top to catch some sun at any time of day.
This is not new and probably not even cheaper than the hand assembled devices being used now. What is new is being able to get it already assembled and in bulk.

Re:Solar Panels on the top of the bulb

[SudoGhost]

"Solar powered lightbulbs" Shit, growing up we just called those mirrors.

Tim Hornyak got paid

[juventasone]

As someone posted in the article's comments, there is already a cheaper, better-designed, and longer-lasting product [dlightdesign.com] already in-use in the developing world.

Re:Cool

[Khyber]

"And your missing the other function of the lights - to be seen by other drivers."

Umm, hi, we have these things called marker lights.

Re:Cool

[wisdom_brewing]

DRL power consumption varies widely depending on the implementation. Traditional low beam headlights consume up to 180 W - with headlamps and all parking, tail, and marker lights on the overall power consumption for lights is in the range of 150 W to 200 W. Traditional dedicated DRL systems use low-power, high-efficacy light bulbs in the range of 5 W to 21 W - that is 10 W to 42 W for both lights. Current production DRL systems based on LED lights consume 6 to 15 watts.

0.2 litres per 100 km... Average american car achieves, what, 22.5 mpg? Thats excluding the light trucks a large proportion of people drive... so that's just over 10.4 Litres/100km - i.e. little less than 2% increase in load... With LEDs (as many firms are starting to fit them in Europe now) it can be a small fraction of 1%.

My conclusions are drawn.

Re:Cool

[SharpFang]

Test that again.

Try to see a reflective sash or shirt one kilometer away in headlights.

The main lights give you up to 300m range of visibility. Reflective objects may be visible at twice that distance. At 1km away - not a even a shade of chance, especially that you are dazzled by your own headlights reflected from nearby objects.

Note brightness of a light source drops off with square of the distance from it. And in case of reflective surfaces, the distance counts twice - from light source to the surface and back.

Of course far strong light sources will be quite visible. Unless you're blinded by nearby strong light sources.