Solar Lampion by Damian O'Sullivan
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 05.16.06
Unlike many solar lamps, this one by Damian O'Sullivan, has the solar panels incorporated into its design.
He says: "Most solar lamps today are of the type that you 'plant' in your garden and then leave unattended. They store energy during the day and release it in the form of light at night, which is nice. But what if we could bring this light with us, into the home? The Solar Lampion is such a lamp. It is composed of an array of 36 'standard size' solar cells (held together by an open spaced frame), each of which is connected to an LED bulb, which is fed by one rechargeable battery. The solar cells store the sun's energy during the day and release it at nightfall wherever you need it."
:: Via MoCo Loco
Beautiful.
He's even managed to make those cheap, nasty looking solar panels appear attractive!
It's definately cool and all, but I can't seem to find any way to buy it - does it actually exist?
Where is this exactly?
I can't find it on the linked site... of course it doesn't help that the damn thing is non-functional in firefox.
So wait, a lamp with solar panels? Self powering, perpetual motion?!?!
Looks cool, where can you buy little solar cells like that?
Sexy.
that is REALLY cool! i could definitely see myself using them. please, please post if you have any info on where to buy them!
That's a sure fire winner - form, function and beauty all wrapped into one. I'd have it.
This is absolutely beautiful. I've been trying to figure out how to buy multiples of these. Though sadly I can't. I would ask you all to contact this Damian O'Sullivan, and hopefully with enough e-mails this Damian will move to lunch a product line.
I live in hurricane country and this would be ideal. I'd love to know where to buy one.
Actually it's a poor design. The angle of the solar cells would indicate that the one above would cast a shadow across it causing a loss in output. That is, unless the sun was horizontal, which it is not except at low output times such as sunrise and sunset. A solar array that is in series would produce only as much energy as the weakest link. Not only that, the cells on the non-sun side would be virtually useless. Nice try.
Jim, You are absolutely correct, we do not need to encourage "less than efficient use of silicon", However, it is pretty.
I emailed the site owner asking for more info and a direct link to the lamp. Will post his reply here.
Unfortunately the light seems to still be in the prototype stage of things. I just received the following from Mr. Sullivan ...
Thanks for your email and for expressing your interest in the Solar Lampion.
The Solar Lampion, although close to production, is not yet available. I am hoping that by showing the world that you can make solar lamps differently to the ones that exist presently, we can move forward with these more exciting designs.
My plan is to let you know as and when it will be made available.
Kind regards,
Damian
PS - the website is in dire need of renewal and we're working on it (thanks for pointing it out).
Not sure about the perpetual motion comment above!! Think the sun might have something to say about that!