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I love the idea of reclaiming some of the energy from our lighting. Perhaps one day solar cell wall paints will be a thing.
by nsxwolf 10y ago
I love the idea of reclaiming some of the energy from our lighting. Perhaps one day solar cell wall paints will be a thing.
- morcheeba 10y agoIf those solar cells are efficient, then they'll look you've painted the walls black. Not only will the quality of the light become worse (harsher shadows from less diffuse light), you'll probably install more light bulbs to compensate.
- tempestn 10y agoExactly. Now that we're putting out primarily visible light from our bulbs, there isn't a bunch of free energy floating around there. Far better to save the energy by making the bulb as efficient as possible in the first place than to try to capture it back.
- 21 10y agoTechnically speaking the solar panel walls would get most of their output from the daylight, assuming you have windows, considering that it's thousand times more intense than light bulbs. But yeah, I wouldn't want to live in black glass coated rooms.
- tempestn 10y agoHa, yeah, but that's kind of like putting your jacket on under your clothes.
- lb1lf 10y agoThe EU incidentally created a similar problem when banning most incandescent bulbs. Well, at least in some countries. Here in Norway, most buildings are heated by electricity - so replacing incandescents with LED or fluorescent bulbs effectively means that you spend less on lighting, more on heating and the sum stays the same - except the new bulbs are costlier and (mostly) provide less comfy light. Sigh. Free lunches remain elusive.
- 21 10y agoUsing electricity for heating is a terrible idea. Unless you are a rich country like Norway which can afford it. You would be much better using LED for lighting and gas burning for heating. So the sum does not remain the same if you do things properly.
- badosu 10y agoConsidering practically all of electricity production in Norway is renewable (99% hydro) the less efficiency in electrical heating can be traded off the more efficient but CO2 emitting gas burning. It's true though that in countries where there's a significant fossil dependent electrical sector it's better to burn the fuel directly.
- aylons 10y agoExcept it is not as cold everyday, and not every room has the light and heating demands perfectly proportional. And incandescent bulbs also generates more trash. Tying lighting to heating is inherently inefficient.
- ajuc 10y agoWasting electricity like that... At least put it through some computer before throwing it away as heat.
- monochromatic 10y agoHeat pumps are way more efficient than just resistive heating.
- nsxwolf 10y agoGood point. Maybe things that are frequently dark - like baseboard trim?
- 21 10y agoA bit like a perpetuum mobile, right, light is captured by the walls which generate electricity for the lights. Free lighting for everyone...
- roesel 10y agoWell the point of lighting a room is that you want the room `light` and making walls that absorb light makes them not reflect light and then your room is dark again. So even if this was possible (which it is not), the idea would still be rather useless (until you managed to achieve efficiency over 100 % ;) ).
- ajuc 10y agoIf we paint the outside it might make sense. As long as you like black houses.
- ouid 10y agoIt's more efficient to wear night vision attire everywhere. Why illuminate a whole room when you only care about the light that makes it onto your retinas?