The Best Way to Introduce DIY Solar?

 
  We hesitate to tell anyone what is the best of using DIY Solar but if you contact us at
  biodes@bigfoot.com we will send some leaflets outlining various possibilities.

  There are many ways of using DIY Solar but for helping truly poor people, where any money
  needs using as carefully as possible, we start by sending a small amount of parts to see if
  the concepts are really understood and whether there is sufficient local interest!

  It is often difficult to convey the fact that, unless they can get external funding, DIY Solar devices must be made and sold
  to raise the cash to order more parts.
  Mention has been made in a previous page of DIY Solar torches and below we introduce to a new type of LED that has
  become much cheaper recently - SMD Strips

Dear Graham,

For over a year while in Sierra Leone, the three DIY solar kits I got from you fueled my primary source of light as I used them to recharge the batteries that provided the only light I had. I suspended a ten LED light in two strategic places in my room and this gave me the light I needed to read, wash, eat, entertain, etc. My friends in the village also used them to recahrge small batteries for a camera, flashlight and other needs. One of the three kits stopped working (loose wire?) and I brought it home with me to Canada to fix. It will be one of the first things I pack when I return in a couple of months. I hope that the interest these kits generated while I was there will continue while I return. Thanks for all you do for all of us!!

Carolyn van Gurp

Using SMD Strips

In the photo above you can gauge the light produced by just 3 SMDs shining on a wall in an unlit room from one metre away.
A torch LED beam is seen near the centre of the wall.

The photo below shows how 3 - 3.7v Li-ion batteries can be connected to power a SMD strip as they give about 12v. Another possibility is to use a low cost electronic device that converts a smaller voltage into 12v.

These SMD strips cost as little as $10 for 60 SMDs and each SMD consumes only about 0.1 watts!