Question by : Would it be possible to power an energy star light bulb using the light it produces and photo-voltaic cells?
Could you create a “lampshade” of photovoltaic cells that would absorb light from a standard energy star (fluorescent), create electricity, and in turn power the lightbulb again? A battery would be used to light the bulb initially and then removed. Does the number of photo cells multiply the amount of energy or is the amount of energy released from the lightbulb to small?
Best answer:
Answer by scottsdalehigh64
No, this will not work. What you are describing is a perpetual motion machine that does useful work. Even if you put the light bulb in a mirrored box with the photocells, some of the energy will degrade to heat and the light will go out. This is an example of the second law of thermodynamics: in a closed system the entropy of the system will never decrease. In fact the entropy of the system will rise, and it will be detectable as the increased heat in the box.
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