The Glow Brick, designed by Sam and Jude of Suck UK, is a cute little cordless nightlight made from a phosphorescent lightbulb (yes, a REAL lightbulb) embedded in a block of acrylic. It requires no electricity and can glow for up to three hours, “powered” only by light it soaks up from the sun or other artificial light sources, making it as energy-efficient and eco-friendly as it is clever.
Glowing with the aid of phosporescence (like the glow-in-the-dark stars on your childhood bedroom ceiling), the Glow Brick employs an often-overlooked material for efficient energy generation. Phosphorescence is an extremely promising source of energy-efficient light, and we’re not sure why more lighting designers aren’t experimenting with the environmental applications of phosphorescent materials.
£20.00 from Suck-UK
Except that acrylic resin isn’t very eco-friendly… and the light given off isn’t enough to do anything useful by… other than that’s it’s great!
I really wish that it shipped to the united states… I have a slight fetish for lights… and this one is awesome.
I get in trouble with lighting though…
yes, i was wondering about the acrylic thing….
on the other hand, i wonder if the model of constantly racing to produce more and more things to sell to people with increasingly short attention spans, which lead them to quickly tire of the things that they recently bought, which leads them to discard those things and go out to buy new things, and so on… is sustainable?
It is a beautiful object. I think it has a lot of uses, primarily as an object of decoration, and also as a light for bedrooms. Also for parties in gardens by night. Since it is eco-friendly and has the advantage that it does not use electricity. The price is going to be important.
i bought a few of these from: http://charlesandmarie.com/soupe-du-jour they were $20 each that day on their site. they are beautiful and glow brightly if charged up but the glow doesn’t last very long. i disagree with their claim that if you leave it in the light all day they turn into night lights when it’s dark. i still love them though. even in the daytime!
I bought a few of them on http://charlesandmarie.com/lifestyle-gems/quintessentials/ as well – unfortunately I missed the day when they were $20 – but they are great, they last a couple of hours – I used them for a party, and they looked totally cool! And they are available in blue now which is cool as well and they have a bunch of other great stuff, like the Sun Jar by Tobi Wong which works a little different but is probably even better…
Hi Emily! I am glad that you like the Glow Brick, if you are interested, we sell them here in the US and we have just received the stock for the Blue ones as well, that have literally just been launched. If you are interested, we could send you one of Tobi’s Sun Jars, which is a slightly similar approach, but doesn’t use Phosphorescence you can have a look at them here:
http://charlesandmarie.com/lifestyle-gems/quintessentials/modern-living/details/?tx_ttproducts_pi1%5BbackPID%5D=308&tx_ttproducts_pi1%5Bproduct%5D=509
Let me know if you like so more information.
What is coast for glow bricks?
I got mine from http://www.sciencetoystore.com they are currently offering free shipping on them and it will make a great christmas gift for my sister.
I got mine at the glowhouse, they seem to be the cheapest, not sure about the shipping cost to the usa though. The light it gives off isn’t that impressive, but if I wanted a bright light I’d buy a torch! I do love it though
Found the More Eco Friendly Version the Sun Jar for Worldwide shipping @ http://www.sciencetoystore.com/contents/en-us/d26.html
This one i tried out and it is pretty cool as the sun jar produces a lot more lighting. Decent shipping price to and they had it to me in 3 days
If you’re in Canada and want to avoid customs hassles and duties, you can get these at http://www.greengadgets.ca
How much do they cost?