Next time you tune into the TV shopping channel QVC, you might see a product, direct from Bethlehem, that might salvage your sanity during the next power outage.
The Illumagard, manufactured by a startup called Electrikus and sold for a suggested price of $49.99, charges lamps and turns them on automatically when the electricity goes out. All you have to do is plug your table or floor lamp into the device.
“If there's a power outage it will keep your lamp burning brightly for 10 hours,” explains Jeff Shakespeare, chief technology officer. His house had no electricity for five days after this year's Halloween weekend snowstorm, but he had plenty of light thanks to strategically placed Illumagards.
“I could read a book,” Shakespeare says. “I could play a board game.”
Perhaps memories of that storm, and of the havoc Hurricane Irene wreaked in late August, helped Electrikus win last month's Ben Franklin Venture Idol, hosted by the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania. An audience that included professional investors chose the company as the most promising out of three that presented their products and services. The prize was a $5,000 investment from Ben Franklin.
Next Electrikus plans to sell a backup for refrigerator and freezer units, with a prototype expected in the next few weeks. The goal is for the device to keep a refrigerator running for up to four days. Plus, owners will be able to program the unit to draw power from the grid during off-peak hours.
Source: Jeff Shakespeare, Electrikus
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen