My Invention

mikerowsopht

My invention consists of a light bulb which has a solar cell at the base of the bulb.

When the bulb is turned on the light generated will charge the solar cell all the time while the light is switched on.

Now imagine each bulb in your house had one of these's.

There would be a cable running from the cell back to a battery which could also be used as an alternative power source.

Bascially in a nutshell it's a bulb which charges itself as it gets used.
Would this work? After all the light & heat is just being wasted when the bulb is turned on.

This is not the same as the street lights in town that charge during the day and get turned on at night.

This would be a " you turn on the light and while it lights your room the solar cell also charges a battery somewhere in your house".

Granted not alot of energy but nonetheless it's energy wasted that could be caught as such.

Would this work ? even to a certain extent ??

El Weirdo

My God! You've done it! We're saved!

chin_grin

<lightning>

IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE, IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE.

Probably/maybe/no. Don't quote me on that though.

Yoink.

Biggins

I have absolutely nothing to say so my post is pointless.

upandcumming

Solar=Sun as far as I know. Light bulbs and the sun aren't the same. Think so anyway.

Duggy747

There's going to be some men in black calling around to your house soon, one of them will be holding a syringe behind his back...............when he asks you to come look inside their "Florist" van..........DON'T!

*fixes tinfoil hat*

admiralofthefleet

me runs off to dragons den

Velocitee

Firstly - this would have to be charged first.

Secondly - (the fact artificial light isn't the same as solar aside.) you would lose energy as heat.

Lastly - You can't create energy from nothing. That's why dynamos in cars won't charge a full battery to run off while they're driving etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy

Nice try though...

edit: re-read your post and it may be good as a standby but I'd imagine it would be miniscule charge and the implementation (the converter system) would probably cost way more than potential savings

Blazer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWxZm8WjlI8

ScumLord

So its along the lines of this great scientists work.

Sea Sharp

Look up the Irish company Steorn, they'll give you oral sex and a Mars bar for your idea.

L_Bonn

If you could create a 100% efficient system whereby your solar panel captured all of the light and if you also attached a heat capture system to return 100% of the heat to electrical energy again, you would have a self powering bulb. There are 2 major problems with this -
1/ the bulb would give off no light
2/ 100% efficiency is impossible

I guess if would be useful to try to recover a small amount of energy from all of the light fittings in a house if technology allowed it to be done cheaply although putting a solar panel near the light may create a reduction in lighting in the room meaning you would have to increase lighting by an amount similar to energy saved.

CreepingDeath

mikerowsopht wrote: »

My invention consists of a light bulb which has a solar cell at the base of the bulb.

Won't work.
The smallest energy efficient light bulb I've seen draws 11watts, and you'd probably need a solar cell the size of at least an A4 sheet of paper to trickle charge a battery.

It's much more efficient to have solar panels on the roof charging a battery in the attic I imagine.

Rabble Rabble

LEDs would be far more efficient, even if this worked. the major product of the typical light bulb is heat, light is a byproduct because it heats white hot. Basically it is a century long hack.

alwaysadub

Having worked in lighting for the past 9 years, I can safely say your idea won't work.





But if it does, i'm robbing the idea and patenting it and becoming a millionaire...

flyton5

Run that by me again. Once the DeLorean hits 88mph what happens?

nozzferrahhtoo

mikerowsopht wrote: »

After all the light & heat is just being wasted when the bulb is turned on.

Aside from all the laws of physics which you will have to break to make your invention work.... this is the line that I find the most fun.

If the light is being wasted then why turn it on at all?

Assuming you are using the light to see by however... it is not exactly wasted is it?

fonecrusher1

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Won't work.
The smallest energy efficient light bulb I've seen draws 11watts, and you'd probably need a solar cell the size of at least an A4 sheet of paper to trickle charge a battery.

^thats what i was thinking.

A tiny solar panel is going to store a tiny amount of energy. If the bulb was running off the miniture solar panel it would be emit less light than a little cake candle.
The energy required from the battery to run the light bulb would be many times greater than the amount of energy produced by the solar cell.

Essentially its still inefficient & needs a power source like a big oul dirty battery.

mikerowsopht

upandcumming wrote: »

Solar=Sun as far as I know. Light bulbs and the sun aren't the same. Think so anyway.

you can work a calc off a normal light bulb. I am also used other solar panels for other devices off normal lights bulbs so don't see why this wouldn't work?

_feedback_

How could you post this thread without using the lightbulb icon?

It is possibly the most appropriate thread that you could have used the icon for.

hullaballoo

Your idea sucks.


My invention is a vibrator that's charged from kinetic energy.

mikerowsopht

elviscostello wrote: »

How could you post this thread without using the lightbulb icon?

It is possibly the most appropriate thread that you could have used the icon for.

lol - I am still to advance in the technology of pics

fonecrusher1

mikerowsopht wrote: »

you can work a calc off a normal light bulb. I am also used other solar panels for other devices off normal lights bulbs so don't see why this wouldn't work?

Yeah but a calculator requires a fraction of the energy a lightbulb needs?

A calculator display is a monochrome lcd? Its ink.

oeb

Damn! Entropy wins again! Curse you Entropy!

mikerowsopht

It was just a ponder.
I was only wondering if you could pick up the enegy given off by a lightbulb.

Since a lightbulb gives off 99% heat and 1% light.
The cell itself would be at the base of the bulb so not to affect the light itself.

Perhaps some sort of heat catcher would be better since it's 99% heat.
Back to my drawering board I suppose

AnonoBoy

My invention is dental floss that can also be used as lube.

Yakult

mikerowsopht wrote: »

My invention consists of a light bulb which has a solar cell at the base of the bulb.

When the bulb is turned on the light generated will charge the solar cell all the time while the light is switched on.

Now imagine each bulb in your house had one of these's.

There would be a cable running from the cell back to a battery which could also be used as an alternative power source.

Bascially in a nutshell it's a bulb which charges itself as it gets used.
Would this work? After all the light & heat is just being wasted when the bulb is turned on.

This is not the same as the street lights in town that charge during the day and get turned on at night.

This would be a " you turn on the light and while it lights your room the solar cell also charges a battery somewhere in your house".

Granted not alot of energy but nonetheless it's energy wasted that could be caught as such.

Would this work ? even to a certain extent ??

why dont you try it instead of talking about it? Not really a invention if you just have it in theory.

Dont think it will work myself as people have more than likely worked on this idea or similar.

fonecrusher1

I think the problem is that solar technology is still very expensive. We'd all have solar panels hanging off our houses if it was 19.99 a square yard.

CuLT

hullaballoo wrote: »

Your idea sucks.


My invention is a vibrator that's charged from kinetic energy.

That is actually probably a good idea.

cock robin

A grand idea in principle, however it's a non runner. Solar panels work using solar energy. Look at garden lighting for example. Only energy from the sun charges these and they omit a very poor quality of light and they are in sunlight 100% of the time. But press on with your ideas you might hit on something good.

citizen_p

TROLL SCIENCE

is basically what hes on about, google it, theres alot more better ones.

these started a while back, i actully made like 3

El Guapo!

http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/5771/catenergy.png

Is this one of your ideas too OP? :pac:








i kid...i kid.....

deandean

Reminds me of the solar powered flashlight I saw a schematic for once, just a solar cell connected to a bulp.
The brighter the day, the better the light.
Brilliant!

Osgoodisgood

"I intend to discover, this very afternoon, the secret of alchemy --
the hidden art of turning base things into gold."

Of course firstly I'll just deal with this pesky 2nd law of thermodynamics, develop the first functioning perpetual motion machine and be home in time for din dins.

Wertz

This reminds me of my financial idea last year where I get 2 credit cards with a 2K limit...borrow 2K on one, then pay it off with the other within the interest free time period, alternating over the months. Free 2K for life :pac:.

In reality it doesn't work because eventually to balance the debt the 2K has to be paid off, and because you have to pay a tax on the cards every year.

Now take this over to your idea...lightbulb needs an initial injection of electrical energy to produce light and heat...the heat disipates (unless you have a way of using it to heat something else; water?) whilst the photons spill into the room, a very small % of them falling on the PV cell, producing a small electron flow back into the bulb...it's never going to manage to be self sustaining; it's never going to even appraoch being able to pull enough energy from the source as what it needs to keep going.
It's like any perpetual motion machine.

Escher's waterfall is a good image to illusrate why it can';t work without getting into the science...

Calibos

On a related note.
100w Lightbulb emits 1 watt in the form of light and 99w in the form of heat. Oh noes!! We should ban them and use more efficient bulbs filled with poisonous mercury that cost 20 times as much.

But But!! Think of the money you save over the life of the efficient bulb!!

Do you know all that happened? You didn't put the price of 99w of electricity back in your pocket, you simply took it from the ESB's pocket and put it in Bord Gais' pocket because now your room needed 99w worth of extra heat from the heating system to maintain the same room temperature.

Ban 100w bulbs in countries between the tropics but here in Hibernia we save nothing by banning them.

There is actually a German company legally selling 100w bulbs in Europe via a legal loophole utilising this very fact. The market their 100w bulbs as heaters!!

Sam Vimes

mikerowsopht wrote: »

you can work a calc off a normal light bulb. I am also used other solar panels for other devices off normal lights bulbs so don't see why this wouldn't work?

It would work in that you could store some of the energy given off by the light bulb and use it again but you'd only get about 1% of the energy back, if even. Basically it would be a lot of effort for a tiny saving

Wertz

Calibos wrote: »

ou didn't put the price of 99w of electricity back in your pocket, you simply took it from the ESB's pocket and put it in Bord Gais' pocket because now your room needed 99w worth of extra heat from the heating system to maintain the same room temperature.

I agree with your argument ...but it falls down at the point where you compare heat from gas and heat from electricity. I don't know exact figures but in turning fossil fuel (gas coal oil) into electricity via steam there is a certain amount of the energy lost in the process...the electricity then has to be transmitted where again it losses a percentage of it's overall energy due to line degradation...then you put it into a filament lightbulb where it turns that electricity back to heat and some light.

Can you really compare that 99w of extra heat lost from the bulb with the equivalent gas/oil you'd have used to heat your home? The extra 99w the bulb "waste" in heat may have taken 149w to produce.

All I'm saying is that electricty is a less efficient way to heat your home whether it be through an electric element or a lightbulb...gas/oil heating water in situ will have a better return.

strobe

Osgoodisgood wrote: »

"I intend to discover, this very afternoon, the secret of alchemy --
the hidden art of turning base things into gold."

It's been discovered already buddy. Sorry to rain on your parade. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_transmutation

Rabble Rabble

Wertz wrote: »

All I'm saying is that electricty is a less efficient way to heat your home whether it be through an electric element or a lightbulb...gas/oil heating water in situ will have a better return.

It's also heating the ceiling. The arugment is spurious, because the heat from any bulb is not enough to heat a room, although the ceiling around may get hot in radiation, and people will therefore heat the house as they did before, on the same settings as before, depending on the weather outside.

I am not really a green, but more efficient energy bulbs satisfy my engineering need for a "neat" solution. LEDs would be better.

Biggins

˙ʇsǝq ǝɥʇ llɐ

˙ʇɐɥʇ ʇɐ ʇı ǝʌɐǝl ll,ı os puɐ ʇuıod ǝsoɥʇ ssnɔsıp oʇ ǝɔɐld ʇsǝq ǝɥʇ ǝq ʇou ʇɥƃıɯ ʇı 'uoıʇɔǝs sɹnoɥ ɹǝʇɟɐ ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ sɐ ɹǝʌǝʍoɥ
˙sʇɔǝdsɐ ɟo ɹǝqɯnu ɐ ɯoɹɟ ǝlqɐʞɹoʍ ǝq ʇou ʇɥƃıɯ ɐǝpı ɹnoʎ ʇɐɥʇ uoısnlɔuoɔ ǝɥʇ oʇ ǝɯoɔ ǝʌ,ı 'ʇı ʇnoqɐ ʇɥƃnoɥʇ ƃuıʌɐɥ

recylingbin

Mousey- wrote: »

i actully made like 3

What does this mean?
Did you make 3, did you make something approaching 3 or did you make more than 3?
Like 3, WTF?
And you spelled the other superfluous word incorrectly.

Osgoodisgood

strobe wrote: »

It's been discovered already buddy. Sorry to rain on your parade. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_transmutation

My parade remains watertight old bean.
Percy's is a sodden mess alright.

Hail 2 Da Thief

Is the OP a Kerryman? :pac:

Wertz

Rabble Rabble wrote: »

It's also heating the ceiling. The arugment is spurious, because the heat from any bulb is not enough to heat a room, although the ceiling around may get hot in radiation, and people will therefore heat the house as they did before, on the same settings as before, depending on the weather outside.

I am not really a green, but more efficient energy bulbs satisfy my engineering need for a "neat" solution. LEDs would be better.

I'd be somewhat green but not down at this end of things where you replace filament with mercury and cause more polution in manaf process. Reserving the world's tungsten supply is a far better reason for swicthing to CFL than the CO2 emmisions.

As for the heating from bulbs...it heats the celing sure...and the air around it.
The thermostat may be on the same oC setting but the heating will turn on for a (very small) fraction of time less than it might if there was added heat from the incandescent bulb warming the room by a small %.
.
I definitely agree that LED will be better and more friendly to older fittings and for smaller applications.

ScumLord

hullaballoo wrote: »

Your idea sucks.


My invention is a vibrator that's charged from kinetic energy.

That actually is a good idea that could easily be achieved with modern technology and done really cheaply too, petty you forgot to say patent pending. Yoink!

Calibos wrote: »

On a related note.
100w Lightbulb emits 1 watt in the form of light and 99w in the form of heat. Oh noes!! We should ban them and use more efficient bulbs filled with poisonous mercury that cost 20 times as much.

But But!! Think of the money you save over the life of the efficient bulb!!

Do you know all that happened? You didn't put the price of 99w of electricity back in your pocket, you simply took it from the ESB's pocket and put it in Bord Gais' pocket because now your room needed 99w worth of extra heat from the heating system to maintain the same room temperature.

Ban 100w bulbs in countries between the tropics but here in Hibernia we save nothing by banning them.

There is actually a German company legally selling 100w bulbs in Europe via a legal loophole utilising this very fact. The market their 100w bulbs as heaters!!

Why don't we see any more LED bulbs? Don't they over come all these problems?

OutlawPete

Velocitee wrote: »

Lastly - You can't create energy from nothing. That's why dynamos in cars won't charge a full battery to run off while they're driving etc.

This is something that baffles me actually.

If wheels on a car are moving anyway, why can their movement not be used to harness energy, just as the movement of windmill in a windfarm for instance?

Wertz

OutlawPete wrote: »

This is something that baffles me actually.

If wheels on a car are moving anyway, why can their movement not be used to harness energy, just as the movement of windmill in a windfarm for instance?

Because the friction necessary to recoup the energy from the turning wheels (dynamo, generator) will eventually outstrip the energy that is being put into the wheels to turn them.
You simply cannot get out more than you put in.

TPD

Had to be done, OP.

Wertz

Biggins wrote: »

˙ʇsǝq ǝɥʇ llɐ

˙ʇɐɥʇ ʇɐ ʇı ǝʌɐǝl ll,ı os puɐ ʇuıod ǝsoɥʇ ssnɔsıp oʇ ǝɔɐld ʇsǝq ǝɥʇ ǝq ʇou ʇɥƃıɯ ʇı 'uoıʇɔǝs sɹnoɥ ɹǝʇɟɐ ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ sɐ ɹǝʌǝʍoɥ
˙sʇɔǝdsɐ ɟo ɹǝqɯnu ɐ ɯoɹɟ ǝlqɐʞɹoʍ ǝq ʇou ʇɥƃıɯ ɐǝpı ɹnoʎ ʇɐɥʇ uoısnlɔuoɔ ǝɥʇ oʇ ǝɯoɔ ǝʌ,ı 'ʇı ʇnoqɐ ʇɥƃnoɥʇ ƃuıʌɐɥ

I thought you'd gone all hebrew on us there for a while biggins or were making some point about it all being gibberish to you :pac: