Thursday, April 24, 2014: In a bid to overcome the plethora of problems posed by traditional kerosene lamps, a Swiss start-up, LEDsafari has developed an ingenious system for a do-it-yourself (DIY) solar lamp. Kerosene lamps are notably used by almost 1.6 billion people across the globe, including India. The new solar lamp aims to offer a more effective, safe and less expensive alternative to the vast number of users, particularly the ones living in developing countries like India.
Kerosene poses many problems: it’s highly toxic so much so that its daily use equals the inhalation of smoke from as many as 40 cigarettes thereby increasing the risk of serious lung diseases, claims a new study. Globally, kerosene consumption releases nearly 265 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Further, kerosene devices are dangerous, causing severe burns on countless number of people each year. Meanwhile, another finding suggests that the USD 2-3 per week spent on fuel more often than not represents almost 20 pe cent of a faily’s budget. To overcome the aforementioned problems Govinda Upadhyay, PhD student in the Solar Energy and Building Physics Laboratory at the Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPF) has come up with an alternative that is cost effective and also doesn’t pose any health hazards.
The DIY solar lamp requires only a few locally-founded equipment for construction: an electric cable, mobile phone battery, an on/off switch and LED. Only the solar panels are required to be ordered fro abroad. The lamp gives four to five hours of light on a single five to six hours of charging. The researchers have successfully field tested the lamp in several regions in India, Tanzania and Kenya. Over 200 people here attended an educational three-day workshop organised by LEDsafari recently.
People were educated and trained aand have already started reaping the benefits of the unique lamp. “Globetrotters who like to mix business with pleasure can attend a day of training with the start-up in Switzerland. They then go share this new knowledge with a village in a developing country for three days before going on vacation. It adds a humanitarian touch that fans of travelling off the beaten track appreciate,” Upadhyay was quoted as saying.
