For your incredible support! We're thrilled to have hit our target and be able to put our plans in motion to set up an assembly line in Kenya - where many of you will be receiving your GravityLights from in 2016!
Our campaign is still open, 'in demand', to enable those that missed our campaign deadline to still support and be a part of GravityLight: Made in Africa.
We will be keeping you posted with updates via Indiegogo on what we're up to and our progress on setting up in Kenya.
You can also follow us on twitter and Facebook too.
Thank you again!
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GravityLight is an innovative
solution that
generates power from the lift of a weight.
As Featured In:
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Instant light, any time
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No sun or batteries needed
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With GravityLight all you need is a
weight.
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Feedback from global trials of our first design, GL01, was extremely encouraging!
Vitally, it also gave us insights into what needed improving.
After extensive iterations and accelerated life testing we developed an improved model, GL02, that is:
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Today, over
1 in 5 people do not have electricity. Instead, they rely on dangerous and
polluting kerosene lamps for light.
GravityLight
has been designed primarily as a safe, clean and affordable alternative to kerosene lamps.
Your
support will enable us to launch our improved GravityLight - to help eliminate kerosene lamps - as well as to establish an
assembly line in Kenya.
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Hear from Evelyn what it's like to use a kerosene lamp for light:
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In
2014, enabled by the Indiegogo
community, we conducted global trials
with over 1300 off-grid families of our first GravityLight design – GL01.
Over 90% of those who tried GravityLight
said they would use one instead of a kerosene lamp!
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Switching from kerosene to GravityLight starts a positive cycle of benefits - of money saved, increased productive
hours and improved health.
In parallel, GravityLight
eliminates the carbon dioxide and black carbon that kerosene lamps emit.
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We want GravityLight to be an empowering
product in every sense of the word.
As well as designing GravityLight
to provide a clean, safe and affordable alternative to kerosene lamps, we also
want to
create local jobs, skills and livelihoods for
those who make and sell GravityLights.
Although GravityLight will be available
internationally, Kenya is a one of our launch markets for off-grid families. It represents
a gateway to East Africa and has an emerging manufacturing industry, which we
hope to help develop and grow.
Our approach is to learn
from and partner with the best and we’ve found a fantastic, like-minded
partner to work with in Kenya: Burn Cookstove
Manufacturers.
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Our goal is to raise $199,000 in 40 days!
With these funds we can set up assembly in Kenya of our new and improved GravityLight: GL02.
Your support will fund materials, such as soldering irons, assembly jigs and quality testing equipment, as well as staff training on assembling GravityLight and performing QC and QA checks.
If you choose the ‘Made in Africa’ perks, your GravityLights will be some of the first off this new line! If you choose 'ASAP', you will still be supporting setting up operations in Kenya but, to get your GravityLight more quickly, means it will be assembled in China.
Once you’ve chosen your reward, you can also opt to add an additional donation – which will directly support building local jobs and skills in Kenya by establishing our assembly line there.
NB. The GravityLight Foundation is a UK registered charity, so please let us know if you are a UK tax payer to enable us to claim Gift Aid from the UK government.
Many thanks for your support – this couldn’t happen without it!
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In
supporting this campaign, you’ll be an invaluable part of GravityLight’s
journey. It’s not often that people are part of such formative stages in a
product’s development and we’re excited to share one of the first, ‘beta’
versions of GL02 with you.
GravityLight
is unique. It creates a new category of lighting: it’s not just a variation on
something that already exists. This raises different challenges to an
‘off-the-shelf’ or ‘me2’ product
Product development journey:
We
have spent over a year transforming a very successful design (GL01) into a
game-changing product (GL02). Over the next few months we will be commissioning
tooling to create the first-off samples of GL02 to test and further optimize.
There may be further improvements that we identify in this process – which
means that you’ll be getting an even better design, that may even look slightly
different from the images shown.
Quality Control:
When
we have the first few samples produced we will need to ensure these meet our
quality standards. If they
don't this is where iterative tweaks and improvements to the data and moulds
are needed.
We
have factored in several months for this process, which may involve iterative
edits and improvements until we’re happy with what we’re sending you. However,
if these take longer than anticipated, we’ll let you know why along with a
revised timeline.
Beta GravityLights:
You’ll
be receiving one of the first samples of the new GravityLight design: GL02. We
will have rigorous Quality Control and Quality Assurance processes in place but
there still could be a few ‘bugs’ that aren’t picked up in this testing. This
is an important part of the learning process and we’d really appreciate your
feedback on these.
For
example, with GL01, we found a defect occurring during transit over sea, and
we heard that UV light was causing some of the straps to become brittle and
snap. This became valuable to integrate into our design considerations and testing for GL02.
We
have done extensive ‘accelerated life testing’ of the GL02 prototype and so
have worked to eliminate all the issues we identified, however you may find
something new. We’ll set up a forum to hear how you
use your GravityLight and your suggestions for further developments.
Thank you for being part of this journey!
Setting up assembly facilities in Kenya:
We've previously set up assembly lines in China and have found a brilliant,
experienced partner to set up assembly in Kenya.
For
‘Made in Africa’ perks, GravityLights will
be assembled in Kenya on the new assembly line established there. We’ve
factored in an additional 4 months during which components will be shipped to
Kenya, the new assembly line trained and assembly kicked off, with a growing
pace.
That
said, if anything unexpected happens that delays this timeline, we’ll let you know
why along with a revised delivery
date.
Shipping your rewards:
From
experience, this took several months for some GravityLights to
arrive. We’ve
assumed 2 months in the perk descriptions – we’ll let you know the date they
ship.
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Together
the
GravityLight team have over 60 years combined experience in product
design, collaborating with different partners and bringing products to market.
From
inventing a gravity-powered light to establishing assembly of these in Kenya,
we aren’t ones to take well-trodden paths! Instead, we aim to maximise the
positive benefits that GravityLight can bring – for those who use, create and
sell them.
This
is our second
Indiegogo
campaign for GravityLight, which means we know a lot about the challenges
ahead! You’re
in experienced hands.
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Are you a non-profit organisation?
Yes.
The GravityLight Foundation is a registered UK charity.
So
if you’re
a UK taxpayer, please let us know so that we can maximise your generosity and
claim Gift Aid from the UK government!
How does GravityLight work?
Once
GravityLight is installed and a 12kg weight – a bag of rocks or sand – attached, it’s ready to go, anytime.
The
weight is lifted by pulling down on a bead cord. On release, the weight falls
very slowly, transforming potential energy into kinetic energy as it powers a
drive sprocket and polymer gear train.
This
generates just under a tenth of a watt, to power an onboard LED and ancillary devices.
Once
the
weighted bag reaches the floor, which depends on how high it was installed, it
is simply lifted to repeat the process.
Can it power other things?
Along
with your GravityLight, you’ll also receive 2 SatLights which can be daisy- chained around the
room and used as task lights.
GravityLight
has a DC jack where SatLights and
other devices, such as a radio, can be attached. We’d love to hear what you
use your GravityLight to power with a tenth of a watt.
How long does the GravityLight work for
per lift?
With
GL02, it depends on how high you install your GravityLight. The winch system in
GL02 means that anyone can use GravityLight, however high it is installed. A 6ft drop gives over 20 minutes of light.
In your last campaign I could
‘buy one, give one’. Can I do that again?
We chose this approach previously as we
were testing the concept of GravityLight – would people use one?
Would it
work in different conditions and how long would it last for. There were so many
unknowns to find
out that
we felt gifting these to our trialists in off-grid communities was the right
approach.
We have worked hard to find the right
balance between low cost, good quality and elegant design. Going
forward, our
approach is
one of selling GravityLights for
several reasons:
- Creating livelihoods: Working
through local distribution partners and sales agents means that people can earn a living through selling GravityLights and
similar products.
Rather
than undermining the local economy by giving
away free products, we
are
able to create jobs and help people earn an income through GravityLight.
- Building a scalable, sustainable
approach: If
we gave away GravityLights to
over 1.3
billion people
that don’t have access to electricity, we
would need to raise a lot of money! Instead, by creating a product that people value and are willing to pay for,
GravityLight will be able to reach far more people, more quickly, without it’s fate being reliant on
continuous fundraising. We are building a social venture that will be self-sustaining in 3 years time.
That said, you are welcome to pledge for a GravityLight
– or many - and ask us to send these to someone else. Just let
us know
when we ask for delivery addresses where you’d like them sent.
Why Kenya?
Kenya, is one of our key ‘launch markets’
in the next 12 months. Having researched and visited several countries and potential partners, we
chose it for many reasons including:
- International Trading Infrastructure:
Mombasa port, on the coast of Kenya, is a key
international shipping hub. This means that it has the infrastructure to cope with international
shipments from suppliers of GravityLight components.
- Access to sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 800 million
off-grid people and, as the grid struggles to keep pace with population growth, this number continues
to rise. It is therefore an important geographical area for our
work to eliminate kerosene lamps and serve
off-grid communities.
Kenya, as part of the Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa,
is a
traditional gateway into East Africa and parts of Southern Africa. This
means that, once we’ve established partnerships, approaches and routes to market that work well in Kenya,
we can look to understand how these need to be tailored to expand into neighbouring
countries.
- Great partners
We’ve met a range of experienced and
inspiring partners, including Burn, who are based in Kenya. Many of them have operations across East Africa
but Kenya is where they have their largest operations.
Achieving economies of scale is critical
in helping us keep the price of GravityLight low, so we are keen to develop a successful approach in Kenya that will
help keep costs
down for neighbouring
countries too.
I have other questions that aren't on
here - where do I go?
You
can send questions on
the comments section of this campaign or by email to info@gravitylight.org
You may also find the answer you're looking for on our website.
