GravityLight is a revolutionary new approach to storing energy and creating illumination. It is aimed to be a realistic alternative to Kerosene lamps. It takes only 3 seconds to lift the weight which powers GravityLight, creating 30 minutes of light on its descent. For free. Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves, London based designers have spent 4 years developing GravityLight as an off-line project.

The inspiration to these folks were the hazards of Kerosene Lamp. There are currently over 1.5 billion people in the World who have no reliable access to mains electricity? These people rely, instead, on biomass fuels (mostly kerosene) for lighting once the sun goes down. The World Bank estimates that, as a result, 780 million women and children inhale smoke which is equivalent to smoking 2 packets of cigarettes every day. 60% of adult, female lung-cancer victims in developing nations are non-smokers. The fumes also cause eye infections and cataracts, but burning kerosene is also more immediately dangerous: 2.5 million people a year, in India alone, suffer severe burns from overturned kerosene lamps. Burning Kerosene also comes with a financial burden: kerosene for lighting alone can consume 10 to 20% of a household’s income. This burden traps people in a permanent state of subsistence living, buying cupfuls of fuel for their daily needs, as and when they can. The burning of Kerosene for lighting also produces 244 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide annually.

Let’s hope GravityLight gets a resounding success and as a result offshoots many more such useful projects.

Links:
GravityLight
IndieGoGo Funding Page