Solar PV as an effective alternative to oil based lamp in the rural Bangladesh

In the off grid areas of underdeveloped countries households use oil based lamps to carry out their day to day activities in the post dusk period. As a developing country, around 40% people in Bangladesh do not have access to electricity and mainly rely on oil based lamps after dusk. The luminous output of theses lamps is extremely small and causes continuous strain in the eyes which ultimately produces serious eye defects. Moreover, the toxic fumes emitted from these lamps seriously affect the general health of the village households. Also there are cases of fire and burn injuries from these lamps. Normally poor households are not inclined to purchase solar home system due to high investment cost. Lighting based on solar Home systems (SHS) provides a risk free and long term economically viable alternative to the oil based lamps. The light output from the lamps connected to SHS is about 100~150 times more than oil based lamps with almost no emission of toxic gases in the operating areas. Although the investment cost appears to be too high for solar home system, but considering the cost involved (termed as hidden cost) due to medical treatment and fire hazards may surpass the investment cost of solar Home System. In this paper, the hidden costs involved for the use of oil based lamps and the actual operating cost to run these lamps have been highlighted and a comparative study has been made to show that considering the hidden cost and the running cost of the oil lamps, SHS will be cheaper than the oil based lamps offering numerous additional benefits to the households.