OCT 13

Alkaline batteries – they are so small and commonplace that it becomes easy to throw them away without a second thought. But they often still have some perfectly good juice left in them – often .8 to 1.3 volts! Yanko Design, an online design magazine, has come up with a great idea for discarded batteries: combine their power into something useful.

To that end, Yanko has designed The Energy Seed - an LED lamppost that is powered by discarded alkaline batteries. It only takes 2 volts to light up an LED lamp and if enough discarded batteries are inserted into specific slots for different sizes, their combined power will keep the lamp shining. In the poetic words of the Energy Seed motto, “trashed batteries can be born again as a seed to blossom light.”

Seoul designer Sung Woo Park along with co-creator Sunhee Kim designed the prototype which is shaped like a flower in a pot. This flower-like lamp can be placed on, say, a public sidewalk where people can walk up and put their old batteries into the slots. It almost feels like seeding a plant! And once the batteries are completely drained, they are conveniently centralized into one place – to be picked up for recycling.

Via Gizmodo, Yanko Design

Comments (6)

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written by Tristan Matthews, October 13, 2008

Nice idea for a lamp, but seeing as we are all geeks here (straightens glasses) I feel that I must point out that a volt is a unit of electric potential and not power which is what most people use "juice" for, so the second sentence doesn't really make any sense. It should probably go something like

"But they often still have some life in them - producing .8 to 1.3 volts."

Not a huge thing, but...

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law student
written by jared, October 13, 2008

This is great. I was thinking of something like this recently. I used to have an incandescent bulb for a flashlight, which was dying, but I bought some cheap LED ones, and I didn't have a battery, so I took the one from the dying flashlight and put it in the LED one, and PRESTO! the LED one was ridiculously bright. I loved it. Wish I thought of the potential application that these guys came up with.

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written by kouji, October 14, 2008

i love this idea. :) and there's that sense of community, as well as easier access for recycling.

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Power from garbage? Great!
written by Steve N. Lee, October 14, 2008

I've always wished there was some way to wring that last bit of power out of a battery. I mean, you'd never dump perfectly good food out of your cupboards into the trash, nor syphon off fuel from your car and pour it down the drain, so why is it commonplace to throw out batteries that are still live? Stupid, isn't it?

Plus, this scheme would have a duel benefit - not only does it help reduce waste by completely draining batteries, but it saves fuel by powering lighting in public areas that would otherwise draw on the grid. The batteries will eventually become waste at some point, but they will have helped us save on carbon emissions so what more can you ask for?

The only thing I'd question is the amount of resources needed to produce the Energy Seed for it to be able to be used in this way? It's no good resusitating old batteries if the technology employed wastes more in construction than the batteries save. Is there a substantial overall saving?

Steve N. Lee
author of eco-blog http://www.lionsledbysheep.com
and suspense thriller 'What if...?'

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Great Idea For School Project
written by Alan Ronayne, October 17, 2008

This might be something worth trying with science classes ;D

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Stupid thing
written by frisbee, October 18, 2008

We should try to get alkaline batteries out of the world and use rechargble (NiMh and Li-ion) batteries instaed. Why make people feel good about that through away alkaline rubbish?
There's not much ecogeek about this, I think....

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