Posted on 02/22/2008 11:27:17 AM PST by blam
Gravity Powered Lamp, Designed By Student, Provides As Much Light As 40 Watt Bulb
The Gravia LED lamp will be powered by gravity. It will be about 4 feet high and the entire column will glow. (Credit: Clay Moulton)
ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2008) — A Virginia Tech student has created a floor lamp powered by gravity.
Clay Moulton of Springfield, Va., who received his Master of Science in Architecture with a concentration in industrial design from the College of Architecture and Urban Studies in 2007, created the lamp as a part of this master’s thesis. The LED lamp, named Gravia, has just won second place in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition as part of the Greener Gadgets Conference in New York City.
Concept illustrations of Gravia depict an acrylic column a little over four feet high. The entire column glows when activated. The electricity is generated by the slow fall of a mass that spins a rotor. The resulting energy powers 10 high-output LEDs that fire into the acrylic lens, creating a diffuse light. The operation is silent and the housing is elegant and cord free – completely independent of electrical infrastructure.
The light output will be 600-800 lumens – roughly equal to a 40 watt incandescent bulb over a period of four hours.
To "turn on" the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour-glass like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. The sled begins its gently glide back down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp, Moulton said. “It’s more complicated than flipping a switch but can be an acceptable, even enjoyable routine, like winding a beautiful clock or making good coffee,” he said.
Moulton estimates that Gravia’s mechanisms will last more than 200 years, if used eight hours a day, 365 days a year. “The LEDs, which are generally considered long-life devices, become short-life components in comparison to the drive mechanisms,” he said.
The acrylic lens will be altered by time in an attractive fashion, Moulton said. “The LEDs produce a slightly unnatural blue-ish light. As the acrylic ages, it becomes slightly yellowed and crazed through exposure to ultraviolet light,” he said. “The yellowing and crazing will tend to mitigate the unnatural blue hue of the LED light. Thus, Gravia will produce a more natural color of light with age.”
He predicted that the acrylic will begin to yellow within 10 to 15 years when Gravia is used in a home’s interior room.
A patent is pending on the Gravia. To learn more, contact Jackie Reed of Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc. at 540-443-9217.
About the design competition
Greener Gadgets partnered with Core77 to seek out design innovations for greener electronics. This competition engaged established design firms, emerging designers, and design students to come up with new and innovative solutions to address the issues of energy, carbon footprint, health and toxicity, new materials, product lifecycle, and social development. Top entries were showcased live at the conference by a distinguished panel and the audience after two rounds of rigorous pre-judging. Entries were evaluated on the following criteria: innovation, clarity of design, originality, form, and presentation.
Adapted from materials provided by Virginia Tech.
21st century lava lamp?
The first place invention must be pretty nifty if this is what came in second.
It’s an elegantly simplistic device. I like it too. Forty wats isn’t much light though.
Clever!
Cool beans. Hats off to VPI Engineering.
Attractive. Looks “arts and crafts” somehow...
I like it too! When he gets it so I can just turn the device over, like a hour glass the he has a winner!
It’s American ingenuity like this that’s going to help us kick our obeisance to the Muzzie oil barons.
The title is highly misleading. The lamp is powered by the kinetic energy of the falling mass being turned into electrical energy, which in turn is powered by a human resetting it every 4 hours.
Or I could just flip a light switch instead of running around the house flipping over LED lava lamps.
At 70+, I need at least 40 watts to tie my shoes and
3 times that to read anything!!
More info here.
Lava lamp.
It’s NOT gravity powered.
It’s human powered, just like having to take your sled back to the top of the hill.
Journalists never state anything technical correctly.
Reminds me of the LED flashlights that you shake for 20 seconds and then they are suppose to give you 30 minutes of light.
More than enough for the cabin - where can I buy one?
Go Hokies!
Interesting
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