Appropriate Technology News
John Barrie + Low Cost LED Light
The Ann Arbor News had a nice article about the Appropriate Technology Collaborative on Sunday, Dec 16th.
ATC is a new tech firm working on creating affordable technologies that solve problems for the 2.1 billion people who live on less than $2.00 per day.
From the Ann Arbor News:
Helpful inventors give away ideas
Architect spearheads nonprofit
John Barrie is interested in a different kind of client.
Oh, it’s not that the folks who’ve hired his Ann Arbor architecture firm haven’t been great – and let him pursue his passion for environmentally sound design.
But, well … there are people who are in a position to pay a whole lot less – in fact, nothing – and who need a whole lot more.
With his family’s blessing, Barrie is transitioning from his life as the principal at the firm that carries his name to full-time executive director of the nonprofit Appropriate Technology Collaborative.
When he talks about it, it’s easy to believe that this is a man who’s eager to get up each morning.
“We can reach 1 million people in five years,” Barrie says. “It’s absolutely realistic.”
Those people are the low-income residents of places in the developing world where there’s little or no electrical service, clean water or sanitation; where health suffers because vaccines spoil and the available fuels foul the air.
They are, in other words, people not served by appropriate technology.
Barrie and his cohorts have a plan to change that.
And it’s elegantly simple.
Working individually and cooperatively, designers, engineers and other like-minded, inventive souls can devise solutions to what are, in the end, technology problems. Let’s say lighting in a place where power is intermittent or nonexistent.
A solution deemed appropriate – that is economically feasible, environmentally sound and sustainable – is given away.
Right. It’s free.
“You can have the plan and make the device for yourself,” Barrie says. “You can use it to go into business and provide these technologies to your community.”
The drawing will be on the Web. “We’re just going to ask people to let us know they’re using them,” Barrie says.
More at the Ann Arbor News
Ann Arbor News article by Judy McGovern
Photo Credit: Lon Horwedel, The Ann Arbor News
Solar Refrigerator Wins Design Competition
Design Team + Refrigerator – Parabolic Trough Solar Collector
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (12.08.07)
Life Saving Vaccine Refrigerator Wins Design Competition
Vaccines must be kept cold to maintain their potency. Vaccinations in rural areas depend on time limited technologies such as ice, dry ice, and cold storage boxes. As a result, 50% of rural vaccines are wasted through spoilage due to lack of cooling. Public health suffers as a quarter of all children born every year–34 million infants–are not protected against diseases for which there are inexpensive vaccines and an estimated 2.1 million people around the world die every year of diseases preventable by common vaccines. (WHO 2005)
The goal of this joint design project was to design and fabricate an inexpensive appropriate technology freezing chamber that can be made primarily from locally available resources in rural Africa and
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative + MSU team won first place for the Edison Award which is judged to be the single most outstanding project. Executive Director John Barrie noted “We are very pleased to have had this chance to work with such a bright and energetic group of students, but the real winners are the children who will now get vaccines.”
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative (ATC) is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose purpose is “To design, develop, demonstrate and distribute appropriate technological solutions for meeting the basic human needs of low income people in the developing world. ATC works in collaboration with our clients to create technologies that are culturally sensitive, environmentally responsible and locally repairable in order to improve the quality of life, enhance safety, and reduce adverse impacts on their environment.”
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Photo Credit – Parabolic Trough – MIT Technology Review
Links:
John Barrie
Executive Director
The Appropriate Technology Collaborative
www.apptechdesign.org
Contact John Barrie
Gaialux Light
Gaialux is the name of our entry in the NASA Create The Future contest. The light is designed for use in “squatter cities”
The following text is from our competition entry:
The Problem:
Most of us take easy access to energy and electric light for granted, but billions of people in less economically developed countries have intermittent power or no power at all and often resort to illuminating their homes with kerosene lamps. Our “Gaialux” light design addresses these problems and also serves as a very efficient task light for college students, architects and designers. Gaialux is an efficient lighting technology for the entire world.
The Invention:
Our invention is a novel Light Emitting Diode (LED) light powered by a recycled cell phone charger. Our light has the option of incorporating batteries that charge when power is available and work when light is needed, thus providing light when other people are left in the dark.
LEDs are very efficient so our light will run for days on battery power alone. When power is available the cell phone charger automatically charges the batteries, when the batteries are fully charged it shuts off – with no standby power loss! (We have measured this)
Currently, LED task lights are extremely energy efficient, but expensive. Our light reduces cost by recycling cell phone chargers for the fixture’s power source. This beneficial re-use of some of the 125 million cell phone chargers that are thrown away each year (in the
Marketability:
Cell phone service providers will want to provide branded energy efficient task lights designed to match their aesthetic palette and powered by their chargers. This reinforces brand loyalty while promoting energy efficiency and a “green” image.
In less economically developed countries where power is intermittent people will want the lights to provide illumination when electricity is not available. In these areas people spend on average $75.00 per year on kerosene to illuminate their homes. Our lights will cost less and provide better quality light. The ceiling light fixture and the table lamp (see illustrations) will eliminate the need for kerosene, thus avoiding pollution, reducing CO2 emissions, eliminating a common cause of fire and reducing respiratory problems. Replacing kerosene lamps with energy efficient LED lamps may qualify for carbon offset credits.
Manufacturing:
We have 3 separate light fixtures that use our Gaialux design. One is a task light for use in developed countries. This can be manufactured as a standard task light with a special location for a cell phone charger designed into the base. Optional batteries will also be located in the base.
The second fixture, a ceiling mounted light, is for less economically developed countries. It incorporates a cell phone charger and batteries under a pedestal that holds a ceiling diffuser. This light is to be wired into the house’s electrical infrastructure. It will be charged when power is available and provide light when light is needed.
The third fixture is also for less economically developed countries. It is a simple table lamp that provides general illumination. The prototype model (see illustration) is made from bamboo sticks and a recycled white plastic bag.
Micro Hydro and Bio-Digesters
Xela Teco Intern @ Colomba
Check out the story over at AIDG’s website of a recent visit to Colomba, Guatemala. In this rural part of Guatemala is a newly formed finca (farm) cooperative made up of 47 families who recently purchased their land. They have an existing micro hydro power system that seems to be failing and also need for bio-digesters.
Work in rural areas takes time, patience and a good knowledge of the local customs.
With some luck the local cooperative will be able to finance an upgrade to their hydro power system and convert their animal waste to bio-gas.
From Intern Katie Bliss’ notebook:
Last Friday we went down to La Florida, a worker-owned finca in the rainforest region near Colomba. I was joined by Chase Nelson, our biodigestor intern. From journeying in a chicken bus, to the exhilaration of the open back of a pick up and finally a 45 minute walk through the forest, we were welcomed with a smile from Rosaura, our representative in La Florida!
The community is made up of 47 families, former employees of large plantations in the region, who bought ‘La Florida’ in 2005. The community has its own micro-hydroelectric system, constructed by the former owners or patrones. The system is old and running inefficiently, lacking a transformer or battery storage. As we spent time in residents houses we found that the system was hardly sufficient to run a light bulb for each family; they also explained how it is often down or running on low current.
Read the rest @ AIDG.org
Solar LED Light Program
Today over 2.1 billion people live without access to electricity. These people light their homes with kerosene lamps. Kerosene lighting is very inefficient, polluting and dangerous. Replacing kerosene lamps with a solar PV (photovoltaic) and LED (Light Emitting Diode) lighting system saves people money, reduces greenhouse gasses, provides better lighting and reduces health risks.
Our PV+LED light system is an economical alternative to kerosene lighting. It consists of modular solar panels, a modular battery storage system and a novel LED light source. A household can purchase our Solar LED light over a period of 2 – 6 years at a lower cost than the kerosene it replaces. Additional benefits include better quality lighting and extra electric power to operate a radio and charge a cell phone.
We plan on operating our PV+LED light program as a for-profit franchise. Our goal is to provide a franchise with bulk purchased photovoltaic panels, connectors, batteries, LEDs and circuit boards. The franchise will assemble the lights and circuit boards and sell lighting systems. We are actively seeking micro-credit partners to assist in this. The Grameen Shakti foundation has successfully used a similar economic model for replacing kerosene lamps in Bangladesh.
The photos below show PV+LED light is higher quality than kerosene light.
First Post
Appropriate Technology Design (ATDesign) creates new technologies for people who live at the bottom of the economic pyramid. We work with our clients, the people who will use our technologies, to insure that what we design really helps those who need it. We form collaborative teams with end users, engineers and architects from around the globe to bring forward and build new and better sustainable technologies.
This website is under construction. ATDesign is in the process of obtaining charitable (501c3) status. We hope to make this node on the world wide web a place where interested people can check in, get inspired and participate in the development of new, better sustainable technologies for the billions of people who live without power, sanitation or access to clean water.
