Euphoria Rethinks the Solar Lamp

Jack Liu, managing director of Euphoria Industrial Ltd., has an unconventional design and marketing idea for his company's newest product, a light-emitting diode (LED) solar garden lamp, which hit the market early this year.

While most solar garden lamps consist of a solar panel shade over a bulb, with the panel completely exposed to the sun, Liu's company puts its LED bulb on the panel itself. The unique design has a novel appearance and has the added benefit of maximizing luminosity by eitting the light skyward. "For a long time," Liu says, "solar lamps have been stuck in a design rut. We hope to reinvigorate the market for such products with this new-look, new-process design."

With its unique design, Euphoria is able to cram a battery and light-sensor control unit into a palm-sized box, making the core system more compact. The box is capped with a plastic lid fitted with the solar panel. The capping seam is carefully sealed to keep humidity out of the box, and the solar panel is made of waterproof plastic.

The compact core mechanism fits into various types of outdoor lamps. Euphoria has developed floating lamps that it says "adds a fun mood to a poolside party." The lamp is buoyed by air bags that come in various patterns, such as hearts, triangles, fish, and stars. Several of the floating lamps can be strung together to double as a decorative warning line on a pool, Liu notes.

The floating lamps have a non-rechargeable battery with a one-year life span to provide backup juice when the solar power runs out. The company's garden lamp is equipped with a rechargeable battery inside the lamp's main post.

The LED bulb is encased with an acrylic crystal with angled surfaces to diffuse the light in several directions. Each lamp has a light sensor that turns the bulb off when the sun is out. "This is an energy conservation device," Liu says.

Energy conservation is also a consideration in Euphoria's decision to use power-miser LED bulbs in its solar lamps, Liu says.

Smaller but Brighter

Thanks to the compact core solar system, Euphoria's garden lamp is around a third smaller than rival products, and lighter as well. The company's standard garden lamp is 135mm long, 135mm wide and 255mm high. It weighs only around 100 grams, but despite its diminutive size deliver as much light as much bigger and heavier units, Liu claims.

Euphoria spent around NT$1.5 million (US$44,000 at US$1:NT$34) and two years developing the core system for its solar lamps. It contracted an electronics specialist to develop the system and a lamp designer to configure the lamp. Development work was done in Taiwan, while production is conducted at a mainland Chinese factory.

All of Euphoria's solar LED lamps share in common a clean and simple design, though there is nothing simple about the skills needed to make such products "A product with a simple design is harder to make than a more ornate product because even the smallest defects on the former are easier to detect," Liu notes.

Although Euphoria spent a considerable amount of funds on developing its unique solar LED lamps for a company that is limited in size in comparison to the big international players, Liu has no plans to patent the new product. "Patent applications are expensive and can burden our marketing strategy," he says. This strategy, he adds, is based on keeping the lamps competitive through rock-bottom prices and high quality.

Liu concedes that other lighting manufacturers may one day copy his designs, but he hopes his company's highly competitive pricing will dissuade would-be copycats. He says Euphoria's low-price/high-quality strategy has recently won over a major international retailer.

The Euphoria executive is also confident that his company can out-compete price-oreinted rivals based in mainland China. He notes that mainland producers have succeeded in the short term in wooing away contracts from Taiwan, but many overseas buyers are now flocking back to Taiwan suppliers due to the low quality of mainland wares.

Price is not the only element of Euphoria's winning strategy. "Taiwanese manufacturers are still outperforming their mainland China rivals in terms of design, and we will no doubt keep this edge for the next five years at least." He says spending on new-product development has accounted for around 8% of his company's annual revenue in recent years, which averages US$3 million to US$5 million.

Liu says that his company uses Taiwan-made LEDs and solar panels made by General Electronics. To further ensure quality, he states, the company's mainland factory is a UL-, CE- and GS-qualified facility.