Solar lamps for the poor

[klaus54]

No comments on the battery issue. Too bad.

[Truthseeker]

I went to the LEDsafari website and left a comment regarding the unit price of the Home Depot lamps. Thanks, Sparko and CP.

[Sparko]

Well speaked!

K54

It also doubles as a weapon.

[klaus54]

I am shocked. SHOCKED, I say! (and not by one of those solar lights, either!)

My experience with these cheap little solar lights is that they soon "wear down" to either not working at all, or coming on dimly for a few hours in the evening. A neighbor had attached one to every fence post for over a mile, and at FIRST it looked impressive.... now it looks quite "hit and miss" and dismal.

Depends on the quality of the batteries. The cheap ones use Ni-Cd. They'de last a lot longer with Li-ion.

K54

[klaus54]

You can buy solar powered landscape LED lights at home depot for $3 each. the ones in the link say it costs them $10 to make.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-B...00AS/203483386

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4091[/ATTACH]

Well speaked!

K54

[Sparko]

I am shocked. SHOCKED, I say! (and not by one of those solar lights, either!)

My experience with these cheap little solar lights is that they soon "wear down" to either not working at all, or coming on dimly for a few hours in the evening. A neighbor had attached one to every fence post for over a mile, and at FIRST it looked impressive.... now it looks quite "hit and miss" and dismal.

The ones I got lasted 2 years before doing that. The LEDsafari do-it-yourself ones say it will last 1+ years so I don't see that much difference. Usually it's the cold weather that causes the store bought ones to fail (the batteries give out) - which I don't think you need to worry about in Africa, and you could always replace the batteries. It is just not worth it most of the time since the batteries alone cost more than the whole lamp in many cases.

[Cow Poke]

Which means it probably costs less than $1 to make them.

Sure training villagers to make them might help them create a business and make some money, but apparently the company that is doing this is charging too much for the components such as the batteries, lights, and solar cells. If it "costs" $10 to build a lamp from their components and plastic bottles, when you can buy them for $1.50 completely assembled and made out of good quality materials, someone seems out to be making a profit off of the poor people.

I am shocked. SHOCKED, I say! (and not by one of those solar lights, either!)

My experience with these cheap little solar lights is that they soon "wear down" to either not working at all, or coming on dimly for a few hours in the evening. A neighbor had attached one to every fence post for over a mile, and at FIRST it looked impressive.... now it looks quite "hit and miss" and dismal.

[Sparko]

Often at Big Lots for $1.99, or CASES of 12 for what equates to about $1.50 each.

Which means it probably costs less than $1 to make them.

Sure training villagers to make them might help them create a business and make some money, but apparently the company that is doing this is charging too much for the components such as the batteries, lights, and solar cells. If it "costs" $10 to build a lamp from their components and plastic bottles, when you can buy them for $1.50 completely assembled and made out of good quality materials, someone seems out to be making a profit off of the poor people.

[Cow Poke]

You can buy solar powered landscape LED lights at home depot for $3 each. the ones in the link say it costs them $10 to make.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-B...00AS/203483386

[ATTACH=CONFIG]4091[/ATTACH]

Often at Big Lots for $1.99, or CASES of 12 for what equates to about $1.50 each.

[Sparko]

You can buy solar powered landscape LED lights at home depot for $3 each. the ones in the link say it costs them $10 to make.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-B...00AS/203483386

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[klaus54]

If you're an electronics expert, maybe you can help with the design of the solar lamp (link below). Don't look at me, I got only a C in electronics design.
http://www.ledsafari.com/

Does the thread title imply that you're poor? I mean sub-Sahara African poor.

K54

[Cow Poke]

We were talking about Energy saving and the effects of energy waste due to unwealthy families in APES(Environmental Science).I can't design anything beyond simple legos but this looks interesting.

Combine the solar lamps in a Logo motif....

[Cerealman]

We were talking about Energy saving and the effects of energy waste due to unwealthy families in APES(Environmental Science).I can't design anything beyond simple legos but this looks interesting.

[Truthseeker]

If you're an electronics expert, maybe you can help with the design of the solar lamp (link below). Don't look at me, I got only a C in electronics design.
http://www.ledsafari.com/