To run a 24-watt light bulb? That means you only need illumination for 6 hours per night. Possible Solutions: 1)Quit using electricity and go back to history. what were your ancestors using for lighting decades ago? Were they using oil lamps? What kinds of oil? Start growing plants that provide you with oil. There are shrubs, trees and legumes that give you oil. Peanuts, palms, jathropa, and the fruits of certain kinds of trees are good sources. You may also use animal fats, used cooking oil, etc. There are countless possibilities, depending on where you live.
2) If you cannot quit using electricity, start making your own charger, inverter, and battery. You need the charger to charge the battery, which will power your bulb using the inverter. You can make all these from scraps. So from your electricity supply, it should go to your battery to store power. This uses less electricity. Then your battery, 12 volts for example, can power either a 12-volt bulb directly, or your normal 24-watt bulb using an inverter to convert 12 volts to 110 or 220 volts. Definitely uses less electricity, less than what your 24 W bulb uses now. The downside is that you have to invest on gadgets (battery, inverter,etc which, as I have said can be made out of scraps).
3) use a 5 watt flourescent bulb. It provides more candle power (measure of illumination) that your 24-watt incandascent bulb. Again, this requires invesment of the more expensive bulb, but it will pay-off in a few months.
