EON ice light: Iain Sinclair’s latest torch
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona, Spain on 02. 4.06
Yesterday I saw this cute little pocket light displayed on the cash desk in my favourite paper shop. Reading ‘ecológico’ on its display box in big green letters I decided to have a closer look. I liked the EON ice light’s slick design in credit card size and the ultra bright blue light the LEDs emitted when gently pushing the snap dome. But a bit suspicious about the eco-friendliness of this fine design, I asked the shopkeeper how this is eco. She didn’t really know and mentioned something about using little energy. I then checked it out on the internet and indeed its 2 LEDs use very little energy and there are ‘no bulbs to blow, no batteries to change’.
(I also noticed that it doesn’t claim to be ecological anywhere online but only in the shop it seems) Hmm…so it uses way less energy than other torches, doesn’t need batteries and you might never have to buy another one but the fact that the lithium dry cells are non-replaceable doesn’t make it that green either, even if they last 5-10 years. A shame this neat design doesn’t go that little bit further and closes the loop instead of now being thrown away (not recycled, not recharged) at the end of its life. But I guess it’s a step into the right direction compared to the average torch, by using less material, making it energy efficient, eliminating the use of light bulbs and batteries and giving it a relatively long life by making it ‘shockproof, crushproof, waterproof and idiotproof’. Plus it comes in 5 different colours and only costs $14/€10/£7. The designer is Iain Sinclair whose Flashcard is an award winning multi-million selling flashlight as well as the world’s thinnest torch ::EON ice light
More LEDs on TH:
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so after the 168 hours, what do we do with the litium ion battery? if it can't be recharged, what do we then do with the thermoplastics? The design is nice, and yeah of course, we love LEDs but um, if it has no real lifecycle considerations at all, and an at best guestimate of 5-10 years life (unless you use it for um, 7 days straight...then it would be a weak) this is hardly something that ought to be endorsed.. an "almost" at best and petty weak compared to the torches that use kinetic or even old fashioned freeplay fly wheels... if it was made to be taken appart and reused, made with hemp plastic or plantic or something then we can all oooh and ahhh the fun design but as it stands.... eh, w/e
How is this better than a reusable battery-powered led light? I have an awesome machined aluminum model from Arc that uses a standard (rechargeable if I want) AAA battery. The light itself is the size of a normal AA battery. Granted, at $35 it's more expensive than the one listed in the article, but it's also more durable (meaning, I could drop it off a building and it wouldn't break), not to mention brighter and with white light. It's definitely not the only one, either -- I've had portable LED lights for years, and even the $20 coin-cell ones come with replacable batteries. And those are MUCH smaller, thus using less plastic (they go on your key ring instead of with the credit cards in your wallet, so they're much more convenient to use).
Stop being so ego-centric. Think what this can mean to Third World inhabitants. I for one am going to send it to my Plan USA sponsored child in El Salvador. So far the only "techie" item I've found which doesn't require batteries is a solar calculator.