$5 Gravity Energy Storage System Provides Free LED Lightning
Gravity energy storage is not exactly at the center of energy-related debates. However, it does have some admirable qualities. One is that such systems can be designed to last a lifetime. This is very important to everyone, of course, but especially to those living in impoverished parts of the world.
A so-called “gravity-powered” LED lamp, GravityLight, has been created that generates its own electricity with the assistance of gravity… although it is not completely gravity powered.
This is a human-powered LED. Like “wind-up” radios, this can be powered by bare human hands, and it works.
I am not going to label this as just another “wind-up” device, or “old technology,” because it is more convenient, and it’s addressing a critical need of the day. Plus, this device seems to work very well.
When those older, hand-wound devices I mentioned got old, their batteries malfunctioned and they would have to be cranked many times, and for a long time in order to get much out of them.
This LED uses no batteries or fuels. This means that it has the potential to last a very long time, if built well.
How The GravityLight Works
To use the GravityLight, the user lifts a heavy weight attached to the lamp by pulling a rope for about 3 seconds, and then the LED operates for 30 minutes before the rope needs to be pulled again.
The weight is a bag that can be filled with rocks, or any other material, as long as it is heavy enough to pull the rope down and turn the LED lamp’s internal generator.
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The generator uses gears to achieve the rotational speed it requires. Exactly how that is done, is not stated.
Normally, people would use the rope to turn a large overdrive gear slowly, and that large gear turns a much smaller gear. Due to the fact that the small gear is so much smaller, it turns at a very high-speed. So the large gear provides a large amount of torque at an extremely low-speed, and that torque is converted into a higher rotational speed (but with less torque) suitable for the generator using this arrangement. I can only guess that this is how this lamp was built, based on the nature of this type of device.
Source: Smart Planet
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