The SunLight SL-2
A few months ago, I was reading an article on Eco-Geek which talked about a new solar flashlight giveaway. SunNight Solar, a fairly new company based in Houston, was giving away 500 flashlights, and I was intrigued. After all, isn’t a solar flashlight an oxymoron? I remember watching an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway? in the 1980s where the actors had to create an infomercial for a solar flashlight; their flashlight, however, had a cord that was so long it wrapped halfway around the globe to where there was sunlight.
Motivated by a pile of punchlines and an almost inexplicable need to get something for free, I wrote to SunNight Solar, requesting one of the free lights, and to my surprise, they agreed to send me one!
I started looking into this new company which was willing to give me something for nothing. Turns out SunNight Solar has a buy-one-get-one policy to help people without electricity in developing countries have access to free lighting. For every solar flashlight you purchase, an additional flashlight is sent to someone who really needs it.
While that certainly tickles my inner philanthropist, the more practical side of me asks: does it work? The answer came as soon as I opened the box: the flashlight clicked on immediately, with no charging time.
How exciting, I thought to myself, and left the flashlight on the windowsill to charge.
A day later (yes, I can be that slow sometimes) the realization hit me like a ton of bricks: I was inside a lit room. Of COURSE the solar flashlight was going to work right away! Now that it was fully charged, I couldn’t test how long it would take to charge up, but I took the flashlight into my bathroom anyway, closed the door, and turned off the light.
I was now in complete darkness. The first thing I noticed about the SL-2 was the nifty glow-in-the-dark ring around the lamp. While that might make the flashlight easy to find at night, I would have also appreciated a glow-in-the-dark ring around the “on” button!
Since I wasn’t at all familiar with the anatomy of this device, I fumbled around in the dark, pressing everything that felt like a button (unfortunately, the design includes round, button-sized objects up and down each side!), until I gave up and turned on the overhead light.
Aha! The on button was at the base of the flashlight. Satisfied, I turned the overhead back off and was plunged back into darkness.
Click. The flashlight turned on, and I could see everything in the bathroom clearly. There was a brighter, focused light in the center of the beam, which indicated to me I was in “task” mode.
The second and third clicks gave me diminishing light with each click, still in task mode. However, the fourth click brought bright light back to the room, this time a much wider beam with no focus. I was now in “room” mode. Two more clicks showed subsequent medium and low settings of room mode, and the last click turned the flashlight off.
So the flashlight does indeed work, and quite well indeed! The light emitted on high in both task and room modes are far brighter than candlelight, and no wonder: the flashlight was designed specifically to be a replacement for kerosene lamps.
Campers, hikers, and other outdoorsy folk will appreciate the carabeener clip at the top of the flashlight, perfect for hooking onto a backpack or tree branch. Personally, I would have preferred a flat base so I could stand the SL-2 upright and shine the beam up to the ceiling, but that’s because I’m not much of a camper. And since this is only the second version of this device out on the market, I’m pretty optimistic that the SunLight will evolve with each generation.
While I don’t think I’ll have much occasion to use the SunLight in my everyday activities, the beneficial environmental, social, and economic impact of what SunNight Solar is doing does not escape me. And so I give my whole-hearted endorsement for this product to anyone who needs a flashlight for emergencies, camping, or who wants to help out with disaster relief and recovery.
So that’s my completely unscientific review. Take it for what it’s worth; I’m sure Consumer Reports won’t be calling me up for any jobs, but if this post has helped you make a decision in your search for a flashlight, I’ll have done my duty.
Filed under Blogging | Comment (0)Super Eco
I’ve recently discovered a new channel amongst the plethora of channels that is my cable lineup: Planet Green. Since none of my favorite summer shows have started yet (though I’m not sure why), I’ve been surfing around a lot more, and am now hooked on Living with Ed (a reality-based show following Ed Begley, Jr. and his ecofanaticism), Renovation Nation (think This Old House with a green twist), and Greensburg (which documents the eco-friendly rebuilding of the town Greensburg, KS after a tornado leveled it a year ago)…and they’ve only just started to launch several other shows that I’m excited about…including Adrian Grenier (yummy) in Alter Eco.
In the meantime, I’ve also been hooked on a blog called Eco-Geek, which just posted a design for a solar plane that won the top prize at the prestigious Lucky Strike Junior Designer Award, a German design school award. Granted, this is only a concept at the moment…nobody’s actually tried to build one yet, but the first thing that I thought when I saw the picture was, “Hey, look, it’s Wonder Woman’s invisible jet!” While not completely invisible, I definitely think Wonder Woman would go for something like this.
