RSSGreener Gadgets: SunNight eyes powering radios with flashlights
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published March 3, 2009, 8:30 AM
Even a universal power supply couldn't support other devices for very long in the wilds of Africa, where there's a total absence of electrical wiring for charging up. But SunNight's flashlights, which combine solar power with nickel hydride batteries, are already powerful enough to entirely light a good-sized room, said SunNight CEO Mark Bent, speaking on Friday at Greener Gadgets Expo in New York City.
Texas-based SunNight sold about $1 million in ultra long-life flashlights in 2007. About 30% of the lights are now sold directly in Africa, while another 30 percent are distributed through humanitarian groups. The remaining flashlights go to other destinations, ranging from police forces around the world to US retail chains like Target.
Essentially, SunNight's product works by converting captured sunlight into energy, which is then stored in three AA nickel hydride batteries housed in the flashlight.
"We are changing the world, one flashlight at a time," Bent quips on SunNight's Web site.
In his appearance at the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)-sponsored Greener Gadgets Expo last week, the CEO suggested that flashlights can play critical roles in remote rural locations such as African villages, which would otherwise be dark at night except for glimmering rays of campfires, moonlight and starlight and maybe a few old kerosene lamps.
Bent told of one young man in Africa who used a SunNight flashlight to do his high school-level homework in preparation for enrollment at a university. When the man later went back to the village to visit, he found that his old friends were still herding goats.
In their latest generation, SunNight's products double as flashlights and room lights, emitting enough light to fully illuminate a room measuring about 12 feet by 12 feet.
Bent said on Friday that SunNight is now looking into ways of using the flashlight to connect to and power other devices, such as radios and possibly even a yet to be developed "bug-zapping" mechanism for protecting the population against malaria.
SunNight has innovated in other respects, too. Bent noted that some of the African villages receiving the flashlights have tended to assign use of the lights mainly to adult males. His company arrived at a clever and workable solution to that problem, as he told the audience: "That's why some of our flashlights [now] are pink."
LOL!
Only folks ignorant of the larger existing market find this stuff that is more oriented towards the conspicuous consumption market frequented by the likes of folks like Bono insightful.
Green indeed. Using a secondary source to charge another secondary source. A sublime study in inefficiency.
What, when you have been able to buy solar powered HALOGEN lights typically marketed for lighting out-buildings from Harbor Freight for $19 for several years!!!
Granted, Bono isn't pushing it, but...
Or, if you want a truly innovative and USEFUL light, 5.11's battery free "Light For Life", a life of over 50,000 cycles (that's ~137 years if you use and recharge the light once a day), a limited lifetime warranty, and 270 lumens output!!!! (how many know just how BRIGHT that is?!? Can we say its literally like looking into the sun...), the beam is 4 way adjustable, NO Batteries, NO heavy metals, 90 SECOND recharge time!!!, and continuous runtime is 85 minutes.
Hook that up to a solar panel and a DC small transformer and you have a useful tool useable in the middle of nowhere! You can see for miles! How useful would that be for chasing cows around in the middle of nowhere or hyena watching?
And it only costs $169. At least as practical as the #100 solar powered radio featured a few days ago! But then they aren't marketing this as a solution to 3rd world issues. Nor is Bono carrying one...yet. Its just a practical tactical light.
And with a bit of ingenuity, the runtime could be easily substantially extended if one can do with, say, the average 20 lumen output a standard flashlight puts out! As not everyone needs the literally blinding 270 lumen klieg light output of which this thing is capable of providing for ordinary use!
But its nice to know that BN is now featuring off the wall niche products designed to make someone money while missing the boat in regards to more appropriate technology made available to all for a low cost.
As heaven knows, you want light in a hut, a small roof mountable 10watt solar panel and a rechargeable battery powered LED light sufficient to illuminate a room should not cost more than about $25 retail - in a for profit retail market.
So, if you want to feature 'feel good' products, feature those practical tools that can actually be purchased by those who earn $5 a month.
Score: 2
|270 lumens is nearly as bright as one standard 20
watt incandescent bulb, and I was wondering where
you got that number:
The 5.11 battery free one needs a power source
such as a car, car battery and solar charger or a
wall plug.
If solar charged one would need as few as eight
of them for an eight hour night at the 270 lumen
setting.
Separate chargers/ batteries tend to be problematic
because of people and the rest of the environment.
With only adverts (no specs) I can't comment on
the SunNight product line, other than to say that
long life is good. ;-)
Score: 0
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