I'll admit that my BS meter went off as soon as I heard about a solar lightbulb that says its LEDs could last for 100,000 hours. But this new bulb deserves a closer look, and some serious performance testing in the field, too.
The Denver-based startup Nokero has its heart in the right place. Founder Stephen Katsaros grew up in Colorado and studied mechanical engineering before becoming a patent agent. He had several other innovations under his belt before coming up with the solar lightbulb earlier this year to help the billion-plus people who rely on kerosene lamps. Not only is kerosene expensive, but it also emits CO2 and can be outright dangerous, causing many casualties by fire says Nokero spokesman Tom Boyd. "You could be saving money over the course of years and use it to replace the polluting, unsafe, flickering light of a kerosene lantern."
Nokero's solar lightbulb just came out on June 10, so these are still early days. Boyd says that even though the LEDs are technically rated as having a lifespan of 100,000 hours, he recognizes that it's a controversial number and prefers to say that they expect them to last closer to 50,000 hours. Each five-inch solar lightbulb contains five LEDs and has four small solar panels made in Germany of single crystalline cells embedded in the plastic casing. Nokero produces the nickel metal hydride batteries, which are rated for two to three years and are recyclable.
After around eight hours in the sunlight, Nokero's bulb should provide two hours of light, although sometimes the bulbs have been able to produce three. Boyd says that each rainproof bulb is expected to last between two and five years if they're properly cared for.
The cost is something the company is still working out because their goal isn't to sell a ton of the bulbs at $15 each online. Instead, they want to follow in the footsteps of other solar light leaders and form partnerships with NGOs to get the bulbs to those who need them at an affordable price. Nokero has sent bulbs to 33 countries so far and Boyd says the company hopes to deliver them to Haiti soon.
When I asked SunNight Solar CEO and president Mark Bent, whose solar-powered flashlights are lighting the way in Haiti, what he thought about Nokero's bulb, he said he didn't want to evaluate it until he knew more about how it worked. However, from a marketing perspective the bulb is "absolutely brilliant," he said. "With mine, the mental expectation when you pick one up, you say 'this is a flashlight'" even though it can be hung in a tent or from a hook to provide light. Nokero's product has the advantage of being designed to look like a traditional lightbulb, he says.
Boyd overnighted a couple of the bulbs to me so I could see how they work. Each bulb contains an auto-switch mechanism that protects it from accidentally being turned on during daylight hours, needlessly using energy. "It's a small integrated circuit," Katsaros explained to me. "It controls the level of charge that the battery receives."
I hung one of the bulbs on a north-facing porch last night so it could get bright morning sun today. This morning I took it down and brought it inside. Pressing a button on the top activated the internal mechanism and when I brought the bulb into a dark room, it turned on automatically. Seeing it actually happen so seamlessly was kind of magical. Back in the daylight, it quickly shut itself off.
Nokero's bulbs are far dimmer standard 60-watt lightbulbs because they're meant to replace kerosene lamps. The light from the one I tried out was modest, but not so faint that it would be problematic. If the company can improve the efficiency to provide more hours of light, that would be ideal. While I like having control over turning lights on and off, bulbs like this could be extremely useful as a stationary light source. Paired with solar flashlights and the right partnerships, there's no reason anyone should be left in the dark.
Photos: Nokero's solar lightbulb charges on a porch in Colorado (top) and automatically turns on in a dark room. Credit: Alyssa Danigelis.
Tags: DoGooding, Green Tech, LEDs, Light Bulbs, Solar Power
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