Vietnam’s unorthodox way cuts electricity bills by a third

Poor families in Vietnam are using alternative means to light up homes and cook food, saving as much as a third on electricity bills.

The citizens living in the slums along Hanoi’s Red River used plastic buckets and old printers as part of an innovative wind-powered generator, powering up old motorcycle batteries to light lamps up, Reuters reports.

The effort has helped eased the financial burden of poor families, and provided electricity to those living too far from a power source.

“It is enough to light the home of my family and other families around here”, Bui Van Ha told Reuters. “Even for only a few hours after dark, it helped us to save on our monthly spending and bring profit to my family."

The wind-powered generator works with a wind speed of 0.4 metres a second, and is the brainchild of Le Vu Cuong, a lecturer at a local university. Image by meganfitzgerald, licensed under CC BY 2.0