Gravity Self-Powered LED Lamp

Product Description

Features

• Self-Powered, The Gravity light Uses Gravity To Create Clean Energy
• Includes 2 Led Lamps With Lamp Brightness Of Up To 15 Lumens
• Hang In Any Non-Electrified Space For Instant Lighting
• Country Of Origin: United Kingdom

Top Reviews

Like the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt
by John S. (5 out of 5 stars)
February 9, 2017

Like the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, this was not meant for us. It's an extremely well designed and refined product, the result of many cycles of testing and revision, like the DC-3 the Arriflex, and the Singer sewing machine. I have five of them from the Indiegogo campaign, and have two of them up and working.

This is intended to replace open wick kerosene lamps in places that don't have electric service. For that, it works very well. Solar with batteries would also work, but would require annual battery replacement. This will work for years without any intervention.

By first world public utility standards, the light is extremely dim. Compared with kerosene lamps, it's much brighter. Unlike kerosene, there's no ongoing expense, just the labor of raising the weight every 20 minutes. Poverty means you can't trade your labor for much value. This offers the world's poorest people a little light for a little lifting. That's a good deal. (BTW, I don't think they're the equivalent of $80 each in the third world.)

So why would a first world guy like me buy any? First, because these folks are doing a good thing, and doing it the right way. They have a good technical idea, and they're making a proper sustainable private business of it, not a charity, assembling in Kenya for the market there. Second, though L.A. has regular DWP power at the moment, a day will come when a major earthquake will take that away. Unlike battery solar systems, these can be stored for decades and should work when the need arises. Third, it's a novelty and a very well done job of engineering.
-- J.S.
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Review of GravityLight GL02 Home System
by Rocky Rhodes (5 out of 5 stars)
July 10, 2017

Review of GravityLight GL02 Home System
1.) It's not for everybody. What it does, it does quite well. Their stated purpose is to reduce dependency on kerosene for task light at night.
2.) Larger than expected. It comes shipped in an 11 x 9 x 6" fiberboard box, well packed. The box comes in at just under 4 pounds. Mine came inside an Amazon box. It would have survived most shipping carriers, including airport baggage handlers.
3.) I could not quickly find a place to hang it high enough in my house to get the claimed 20 minutes of run time. My response to that is 'so what', 12 to 15 minutes is not a problem. It looks like an 8 foot ceiling would be perfect for the GravityLight.
4.) The unit appears to be very well built. Without disassembling the unit, there was nothing which would be a failure point. The cords and beads are quite sturdy, the bag for the weights is exceptionally strong. The company's plastic people did an exceptional job.
5.) The light put out by the unit is, frankly, not what I am used to as a USA city person. About 15 lumen with a color temperature of 5000K and respectable Color Rendering Index of more than 70. It is more than adequate to read by and to do similar tasks in an otherwise dark area. I would not recommend cross-stitching on black aida cloth using this light.
6.) It will not charge a USB device. The nominal output is 2.7 VDC 0.031 A, 0.085 W. It was not meant to charge USB devices, get a solar charger if you need to, this will not do the job, it was not designed for that. It does provide adequate lighting to read and do other tasks.
7.) Pricing - I do not know the actual cost of kerosene in Kenya nor do I know how much lighting a liter of kerosene would provide. I cannot therefore provide a payback time for this unit for replacing kerosene. I can presume that the GravityLight would be infinitely better than the health risk of kerosene. Much better.
8.) Yes, I would buy it again and I would recommend it with caveats to others.
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A Good Third or Fourth Option, or Your Best Only Option
by KC (4 out of 5 stars)
January 31, 2017

This GravityLight is a unique and interesting device, which provides a (bright) booklight's worth of lighting. This may seem like a small amount of brightness, but it is WAY better than the alternative of total darkness when you need light. When I tested this in total darkness, it felt quite bright- light enough to find your way to the bathroom, for example, or to chat w your buddies at your campsite and see their faces. The device is comprised of a "head" portion that has one LED bulb in it, a bunch of beaded pulleys w a counterweight, and a separate nylon sack that opens upward on two sides (each side has a pull closure), which you fill w any type of heavy object (rocks, sand, dirt, etc...), to equal a maximum weight of 25lbs. The set comes with 14 small paper bags to facilitate your adding rocks, dirt, or sand into the larger nylon sack more conveniently. You're supposed to add enough of the filled/weighted paper bags into your nylon hanging sack until you see a red light shine- at that point, you remove material until you see the regular white light. I tried this on a pull-up bar on my bathroom door, and used barbell weights to add exactly 25 lbs. The white light turned on immediately. I took out weights, and found that the white light stayed on even with approx.14 lbs in the bag, but the LED was dimmer. On the other hand, less weights meant the bag descended more slowly. The more weight, the more light, but the quicker it goes out.

To use the device, you raise up the weighted nylon sack by pulling on one side of the orange cord (like a curtain shade adjuster). There is only one orange colored cord among a bunch of black cords, so i'ts not hard to find, and it's also not difficult to pull the 25lb sack up in this manner. As the sack slowly descends via gravity, it feeds the LED energy. This set also provides two separate mini-lanterns and 2 long cords, which you can hook to the "head" and then to each other, to make a string of 2 lantern lights (when the 2 lanterns are in use, the main head lamp does not turn on). This allows you to split the lighting, and to have the option to place lights closer to where you need them. Each of the 2 lanterns can be adjusted by twisting, for three separate lighting levels, so if you plug them in and they don't turn on, try twisting to turn them on. The two lanterns together at their highest levels are about the same brightness as the main headlamp.

Overall, I found this device to be a novelty and pretty cool as a concept, but a bit cumbersome in use- it's a testament to the good design that the cords on this device don't get tangled up, considering how many there are, and how closely they are placed together. On the other hand, you still just have a ton of cords, and it looks very messy and takes up a lot of space...and there's no way i'm taking this hiking. It'd be great for car camping though. I have solar lanterns that weight a few oz and run for 10 hours with 10 times the light as this GravityLIght. But, they still need sunlight and hours to charge. This GravityLight works instantly, and can be a lifesaver if you truly are out of options- no batteries, no wind-ups, no solar, no candles, no fire... this also overcomes the obvious and significant disadvantage of using up a non-renewable energy source, and then being SOL. So, I'd say this is good to have for your tool kit of available lighting options, either at a campsite, for emergency planning, or just as a conversation piece showcasing the clever engineering.
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I show what two satellite lights look like in my garage
by Bill Camp (5 out of 5 stars)
August 9, 2017

This is a really well made product. It performs just as described. I modified mine to run off of a water wheel and I can get up to six hours with the method I'm using. You can see it at bclifters. I show what two satellite lights look like in my garage. They provide enough light to read and work under and light up a large portion of the garage. Raising and lowering the 20 to 25 pounds to run the Gravity Light is very easy. They have done a great job of designing around the possibility of chains getting tangled. Over all a great product, 20 pounds, at eight feet, for 20 minutes of light is just about right.
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Works pretty well and helps support a good cause.
by Rodney N Gilbertson (5 out of 5 stars)
March 26, 2017

15 lumens isn't much, so it won't replace a lamp for lighting a room, but the included SatLights make for nice reading lights and I'm impressed with the idea. Primarily though, it helps support what I think is a good cause.
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Not very bright but works exactly as described
by A. Case (5 out of 5 stars)
February 17, 2018

I bought this to provide occasional lighting in one room of my old barn, which I use as a garden shed. It provides enough light to see where everything is and get or put away what I need. It was extremely easy to install, and using the 2 included satellite lights instead of the main light allows you to put the light exactly where you need it. My only complaint is that the zip ties included to hang up the main light and bag are useless-- both snapped as soon as any weight was applied. So I tied up the unit with rope instead and that worked fine. For Americans who are used to bright light everywhere, this will seem dim, but having grown up in a house with kerosene lighting I am quite comfortable with the light level for what I need it for. Super convenient with no batteries to replace and no sun to wait for.
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Good starting idea that needs refinement
by P. Lorincz (3 out of 5 stars)
December 23, 2017

Well, I think that with current tech and economies of scale this can be greatly improved by lowering the required weight to activate the energy generation (perhaps adding a strong coiled spring or other energy storage mechanism like in watches) and by lowering cost by at least half to make it somewhat affordable for whom it is meant to really help. Also, led tech should yield at least 200+ lumens to make it more useful. Keep improving it.
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Easy to use
by blackberry (5 out of 5 stars)
December 3, 2017

Quite an interesting device! Fill the bag with 28 pounds of something (It comes with paper bags to fill it with sand or rocks, but I used cans of nails and bolts that were in my shed, where I am using the lamp. I do not have electricity in my shed, so I was very glad to have the ability to have light. The light is not very bright, but it does come on a cord that can be moved around and hung where you need it, The cord attaches into the lamp itself. There are actually two cords and two lights but I cannot figure out how to attach them both at the same time so I am guessing that one is supposed to be a replacement. It would be nice if you could use them both at the same time because then you could have two light locations. It takes a fair amount of space for this device because the bag eventually falls all the way to the floor. It is easy to pull the cords, and once pulled they give about 20 minutes of light. Then you just pull them again. Very happy with this.
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Great idea - not enough light
by Amazon Customer (3 out of 5 stars)
August 13, 2018

What a fantastic Idea. I purchased one of these for our missionaries to try out on their trip to Turkanaland, Kenya. We had hoped it would provide enough lighting for a family to read by. Here is what our missionary friend said: "I set up the Gravity Light in our dining room at the SEND Center in Turkanaland one late evening to test its effectiveness. It provides just enough light to light a limited area, but not enough for reading. It'd undoubtedly be more light if I waited until it's dark. I hope the manufacturers can improve on it to produce more light. "

They were able to find some solar powered lights that were $35/each.

So while this design and the intent is amazing, I'm only giving it 3* for its price point, and the fact that I had hoped it would give off more light.

Keep up the amazing work. It is innovative ideas like this that WILL change our world.
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I highly recommend this
by S. Burgos Ruiz (5 out of 5 stars)
July 20, 2018

I sent one to Puerto Rico after hurricane María and it received high praise. I works at night; on overcast days; rainy days. Nothing will stop you from having light with this non-polluting device.

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