A light that never goes out

Over a semester, nine first-year MA student teams at Lund University School of Industrial Design explored off-grid LED lighting in various global contexts, based on solar power and battery technology.

Emergency. Hospitality. Remote locations. Night markets. Off-grid lighting has countless use cases, no matter whether fulfilling essential human needs or delivering more convenient experiences. Students studied a chosen global context and the future users living within.

Students learnt how to distinguish energy, power, irradiance, and irradiation; they learnt how to take latitude, attenuation, and seasonality into account, to come to a thorough understanding of the photovoltaic potential in the chosen locale. Students explored current solar module, charging and battery technology in relation to their future users’ use cases, and they learnt about the human centric lighting aspects of LED technology.

Their designs range from a lighting system for Southeast Asian street- and night-market vendors, over lighting products for preparedness and emergency situations, to shared portable lighting companions for event locations.

All projects were executed by the students themselves as fully working prototypes, including electronics and mechanics.

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A light that never goes out