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Solar Panels And Light Emitting Diodes
The goals of this project are:
- to provide clean, economical lighting to the homes of hundreds of thousands of people, in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, who have no electricity or who experience frequent blackouts, and
- to promote economic development through the initiation of small businesses selling, installing and servicing the lighting systems.
The benefits of these LED lighting systems are an increased ability to read and do homework at night (ie. literacy and education) and an increased ability in the evening to clean, cook, sew, start cottage industries, diaper babies, and just simply interact with other community members. Health benefits include the reduced fire hazard, reduced smoke inhalation, etc.
The beneficiaries of this project no longer need to use smoky, dangerous kerosene lamps or candles. The current users of these systems in the Dominican Republic and Haiti are very happy with the lights, and strongly oppose ever going back to kerosene or candles.
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What technology are we using?
We are helping people obtain one 5 watt solar panel, 3 lamps made with light emitting diodes, and a 12 volt 7 amp-hour rechargeable battery. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) use hardly any energy. The incandescent bulbs you have in your homes use 60-100 watts of energy per hour, whereas an LED may use from 0.1 to 1 watt per hour. Incandescent bulbs only last about 800 hours, whereas LEDs last 100,000 hours (at four hours of use per evening, that is 45 years of life for the LED). Fluorescent tubes do give more light than LEDs, but they use more energy, do not last as long, and their disposal is an environmental problem.
The beneficiaries pay a portion of, and up to 100% of the cost of the systems that are installed into their homes. We have found that they value the systems more when they pay something for them. Also, if they have paid for them and there are problems, they give us plenty of feedback, instead of just throwing the systems in the garbage. As Bill Gates said,"Unhappy customers are our greatest teachers." And so it has been with this project, as we have learned a tremendous amount over the past few years regarding how best to design and maintain these systems!
Since part of our vision is to support the start of local businesses, we plan to use donations of capital to purchase "starter inventories" of systems. Then the Dominican technicians will sell these systems on credit to people in rural communities. The funds collected will be utilized to service the systems, provide income to the technicians, and to order more inventory.
Although LED lamps are all over the internet and available in commercial retail outlets these days, we are now manufacturing lamps ourselves. These lamps were custom designed here in Calgary , Alberta, based on three years of user feedback from Add Your Light's pilot projects in the D.R. Every feature has been carefully
thought through, according to the purpose for which the system has been built. The lamps are available for sale to others who want to do the same type of project in other locations. We are grateful
to Steve and Cindy McArthur for their dedication to this project, giving their time generously to create a product that will really work, allowing people in developing countries
to have light at night!
How can you help?
Please read the current newsletter on the home page to find out how you can assist us in moving forward with this project. It has such enormous potential--- help us to bring clean, economical lighting to these families…. to their children.
Donations are tax-deductible in Canada , and would be appreciated for the purchase of "starter inventories" for these small businesses. Click here for "How to Donate". Thank-you!
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