This might be more of a lantern question. But this is the best topic I found.
Ok. These people have little to no $$$. They have a LOT of brown/blackouts and live in a shack. They can’t afford to keep buying batteries. They can charge from 220v/240V though. I’ve looked at solar stuff but they are like in the jungle with a lot of trees blocking the light. I’d try and send them a 240V > Battery > Inverter > LED light system but it’s such a mess and even if I figure it out, it might not be simple enough for them.
I’m trying to find a 240V rechargable bright lantern thing I guess. It needs a long run-time. Common replaceable batteries. It needs to be simple. I’ve toyed with like d.light S20 x 5 but the solar recharging would be a pain. Does anyone have any ideas? They live in Sagbayan Bohol, Philippines on squatter land in a nippa hut. It’s the epicenter of the big earthquake a couple months ago. It’s a very simple place.
actually if you search youtube… there’s a guy who built light out of soda bottle and only use the sun to power the liquid inside the bottle, the only downside is… they can’t use it at night :~
How about a decent AA flashlight and a big diffuser?
Personally, I’m dropping the idea of lanterns, and going the flashlight, diffuser route, for me an E01 in the bathroom and the bedroom, and something brighter, yet still long running, for the living room.
I’d say if you have to actually depend on the light it needs to use standard cells.
Get them a dead reliable AA multimode light. Give them a set of Sanyo regular Eneloops and a smart charger. No substitutes. You need the reliability and LSD capability.
This way they can keep a set of them charged up on the shelf and not worry about self drain. Then they can also drop in AA batteries if needed.
The Fenix E12 has a low mode that will last 40 hours. 8 lumens is a little brighter than a candle so using that in ceiling bounce ought to provide enough light for regular activity and medium at 50 lumens for 6 hours would be plenty for activities needing more light. 130 lumens would be enough to light a small room for 1.5 hours.
If you have and old DC, stepper, etc motor laying around you could even make it yourself. Another plus is that you can rig the motor to work in any number of ways, like using a bike for example.
There is something called waka-waka light that is actually sold for places where there is no electricity at all (it has a small solar panel). It is probably not blinding bright but it might be an idea? Www.waka-waka.com They do phone chargers as well.
I am from Kananga, Leyte, Philippines and like Bohol, Leyte was devastated by a calamity - not the strong magnitude 7 plus earthquake but by the 300 plus KPH Super Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda). Majority of the people in Leyte do not have electricity in there homes yet. I am lucky to be working for a Power Generating (Geothermal Energy) company and living inside the geothermal site so my home was energized as early as December. My co-workers who are living outside the site are not lucky enough and many of them don’t have electricity in their homes until now. The company I’m working for is already back to business and provide electricity not only to the island of Leyte but also to its nearby islands like Samar, Cebu & Bohol. Though electricity is already available, the local electric cooperatives cannot energize the homes damaged by the super typhoon yet either because most of them don’t have roofs yet, or if the roofs were repaired the electrical connections are still a mess, or the local cooperatives simply lacked the manpower to do it. Because of these people resort to rechargeable lanterns.
My office mates would report to work in the morning bringing with them all their rechargeable stuff. The lanterns all of them use can be recharged both by the sun or by a 220 volt AC outlet. The emitters are made of 3 watt (?) LEDs and the batteries are 6 volt lead acid cells.
Here are samples of rechargeable lights brought by my office mates everyday. I look the picture moments ago. the two lanterns can be charged by the sun.
The blue one in the left has 16 LEDs (4 LEDs per direction) and can be bought for P500 ($11.11) locally. the black one in the right has a defuser and can be bought for P1000 ($22.22). Both are powered by lead acid batteries. Per my office mates’ accounts, these can last for at least 12 hours if properly charged. However, if they rely on the sun, it can last for at least 10 hours if the sun is bright the whole morning but only 6 hours at least if its cloudy. The headlight in the bottom is powered by a lithium ion battery and can be bought for P200 ($4.44). I think all of these are made in China (the brands are in Chinese characters ) but they do what they’re supposed to do and their owners find them very handy.
I think your in-laws in Sagbayan, Bohol would find them very useful too.
I would just give them a WakaWaka solar powered lantern. It’s self contained and simple to operate. Even in less than ideal lighting conditions, it should give them enough light. It gives you two hours of light for every hour of charge, so I would think even with a partial charge, it might just be enough. Certainly if you gave them 2 or 3 they should be good. And I have the fancy model with the bigger battery and built-in USB charger, so it can also charge your phone and other devices if you want.
I have had tremendous luck w a 12v lead cell battery and a couple of E27 base LED bulbs, clip on lamps, etc. Plus it can run any 12v radio, appliance (think RV or boat).
Easily recharged anywhere or by car or solar or ?
And any size battery will last and last w LED compared to batteries.
I don’t know why people are recommending wind turbines for these people. This is not a remote jungle village completely cut off from society. Philippines is a rather well developed nation that just happens to be prone to a few calamities. This is not some remote tribal village.
They said they had access to actual electricity so a normal battery charger wouldn’t be out of the question. I doubt you’d see a decent return on a wind turbine and home made wind turbines likely would be a rotational danger come the next typhoon. Ever see a wind turbine suffer from an overspeed failure? For the couple thousand dollars it might take to setup a proper and safe turbine. You could buy a lifetime of lithium cells. And one thing to consider, in poorer provinces people steal things they know to contain copper. The power wires often are made of steel in order to discourage theft of copper or aluminum wire. So you probably don’t want to dangle a nice fat copper filled turbine on the roof.
The solar panels are a decent idea. A large 12v battery with a solar charger/maintainer can be rigged up rather cost effectively. Combine it with a 12v capable AA charger and even a 12v capable lantern and you have a decent emergency rig. Then you could also run other 12v appliances as was suggested.
If it were feasible to actually get a 12v deep discharge battery to them then I would as the others have said. Go with that and either a fluorescent or Led light source.
I use two LED bulbs that were originally intended as car headlight bulbs to light a large aquarium, when the driver went phut I ran them on a golf trolley battery for a couple of days. That setup would be I believe a good solution for emergency lighting, for a situation as described in the Philippines.
Deep cycle batteries won’t be a problem. Philippines is a nation made entirely of islands with a robust fishing economy and Sagbayan is right next to Cebu which has loads of boat repair yards. Where there’s lots of boats there’s plenty of easy access to deep cycle batteries from a local boat repair yard. Philippines is not Timbuktu.
per My original suggestion about 12v battery and bulbs, etc.
I have used this similar set up for a dozen years now w a regular car battery, as well as a much smaller tractor battery - neither of which are deep cycle. This is my off season car camping and household emergency set up. (for east coast hurricanes, northeasters, etc)
It runs my 12v radio, several 12v E27 base bulbs in mechanics style clamp lights and several brand name LED lights…each bulb pulls between 3-5watts.
You can run a whole bunch of those for less draw than one old incandescent headlamp.
As I have used the system more and more, I have added more/different bulbs & fixtures, easy on/off switch, power meter, fuse and more wires/plugs allowing for multiple uses.
3 years ago I added solar panels to help charge/boost 1-2 of my battery power sources. But I can also run the car for 30 minutes and add alot of juice back into the system (as I did for 15 days for Hurricanes Irene and Sandy)…
It might not be the system someone else finds their best, but I found it x10 more useful than my old battery powered lantern set up.
Same here sri lanka. lot of power blackouts and now power cuts due to lack of water for hydro power plants.
So backup lighting system is must. here people have rechargeable lanterns that powered by 6V SLA battery and CFL bulb.
My setup is here:
6x18650 laptop pulled batteries parallel and 3xAMC7135 (~1A) driven LED
6V 4Ah SLA battery and MC34063 configured to constant current of 1A to drive two LEDs
1x18650 battery and one AMC7135 to drive single 1W LED
Recommended setup:
12V SLA battery and CV charger.
12V LED lamps (some 12v led lamps for automotive use like this can be used for low light requirements)
) but they do what they’re supposed to do and their owners find them very handy. 
