Human Powered Domestic Lighting in Rural India

[MrMranupam2011]

very nice work, I have some question regarding the same, i would be great-full if you answer the same. How much power could the van driver generate per day? is there any additional drag on the van driver because of the dynamo attached ? what is the capacity of the dynamo used ?

Hats off to you sir for thinking about the less fortunate citizens of India.

[ZeFlasher]

I'm sorry...My comment was directed at the poster who recommended using animals...Fireflypower is a both a genius and a humanitarian.

[chipmaker2]

I live in central Ammerica and the sell a solar powered night light for about $5-6 US

In the states they are used in the garden and light the lawns. I think I will buy one and try charging in the day and bring it into the house at night.

I was impressed with the CD/LED lamp. Does it throw more light than just leaving the led exposed? Nice Video :<)

[FIREFLYPOWER]

LEDs have a narrow angle of light dispersion and the CD does not really help as a reflector. I needed some hard flat surface to mount the LEDs and a discarded CD seemed a good option. Looks good too.

[indianspartacus]

Ingenious, great concept. I would love to do something for this. Let me know if I could be any help.

[pj06yaa]

१) मैं भारत से प्यार। क्या तुम?

[Tirikitadha]

Truly amazing invention and video. Nice to know that there are people like you who are devoted to helping the less fortunate.

[FIREFLYPOWER]

Why, thank you

[josephdupont]

He might be better off putting magnets on the spokes with pickup coils as friction

generators lose a lot of energy.. and wear

out the tire.

but great concept.

[FIREFLYPOWER]

I agree with you. I had two things in mind - to integrate the expended energy into the daily activities and to make it low cost. Bicycle parts helped in keeping the cost within $18, which is recovered shortly from the saving of kerosene. To minimize tire wear, a replaceable plastic cap on the tip of the dynamo is being used. I wish to see this for not only providing lights to many but also employment to some by way of assembly and maintenance of the units. Thanks for your appreciation.

[josephdupont]

you might look into aluminum can and copper pipe batteries in plastic bottles cut off. each produce a little over .5 volts. You can even us urine as the electrolyte. a large bank of these can charge nicad batteries.

[FarahWonderland7]

This idea is worthy of funding for more studies. Seems like it could be adapted to work in unlimited ways. This would benefit many many people around the world.

[Proneural]

What if you had some large animals generating energy? Instead of having cows just sitting around grazing or whatever, have them drive a generator.

[FIREFLYPOWER]

Not a bad idea, but I doubt its cost effectiveness. Have to take care of animal rights activists as well. The cost of the animal and its upkeep has to be considered unless the animal is already being used for turning something like a grindwheel or for drawing a cart. Using muscle power to produce electricity is not a new concept, so the primary objective of this project was to integrate this expenditure of human power into the daily chores of the users in a cost effective way.

[ZeFlasher]

It took me 3 years to come across this comment and call you an idiot...Better late than never :)

[ZeFlasher]

It took me three years to come across this comment and call you an idiot...Better late than never.

[gryffynda]

Looking forward to hearing/seeing more about this very interesting project. Please keep us posted on this and future developments!

[FIREFLYPOWER]

Hameed's van along with a cow that he was transporting was confiscated by the Border Security Force on the allegation that the cow was beeing smuggled across the Bangladesh border. The Firefly unit was dismantled from Hameed's van and fitted onto that of Goshto Das. Goshto happens to be a patient of arsenicosis.

[gryffynda]

Good thing you were able to get the Firefly back! Do you plan to install more units on more cyclevans?

[FIREFLYPOWER]

I do want to have more such units installed. I am looking for some agency who could fund a project for installation of more units and a subsequent study of the performance and the socio-economic impact.

[huskersforever]

Kiva(.)org

[loveschoc31]

This is an awesome concept. What an innovative thinker!