Overview
The differences of the product quality found in the market survey underline the need to inform potential consumers about lantern quality and to define standards and norms to make the quality of consumer goods comparable.[1]
Available products out of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal or Tanzania were considered. Distributors were requested to propose types of lamps.
Description of the Awards
The award was raised in order to help agents, importers and users to evaluate products fast with regard to their quality.
The Lighting Africa Outstanding Products Awards 2010 is financed by the Lighting Africa Program. Lighting Africa is a joint intiative of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) that aims to expand access to modern energy sources for people who are not connected to grid electricity by supporting the growth of the off-grid market.
Contest Categories
Categories in contest contain:
- Ambient / room lights
- Task lights
- Torches / flashlights
Evaluation Criteria
- Performance: light output, quality, duration of light, stability, charging process, batteries, and durability.
- Design: ease of use, efficiency, environmental impacts, additional appliances (mobile phone charging).
- Affordability: initial investment cost, maintenance, affordability.
- Advertising ‐ truthfulness, fairness, and non‐deceptiveness during advertise of products.
Selection Process
Products, which were requested, are evaluated on the basis of the following methods:
- initial screening (October – December 2009) ‐ First of all, until five products from each category are chosen within the initial screening.
- laboratory testing (November, 2009 to March 2010) ‐ This phase contains a lab test. The methodology for this laboratory testing was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (with preliminary work of GIZ). The tests contain measurements such as total lumen output, daily duration of light, lumen maintenance, battery storage capacity, charging system and others.
- field judging (January – February 2010) ‐ This stage includes user's evaluation in field tests.
- final selection (May 2010) ‐ An expert commitee evaluated all lamps and chose the winner. [2]
Further Information
References
- ↑ 2010. GTZ. What difference can a PicoPV system make? Early findings on small Photovoltaic systems - an emerging lowcost energy technology for developing countries: GIZ PicoPV Booklet
- ↑ http://www.lightingafrica.org/node/6920
