I like the thinking and design. Would be nice to see how quickly power is supplied to a phone or camera in a well lit room. Our experience with photo-electric powered cell phone charges has been dismal.

Flywheel energy storage is a clean, green, economical alternative energy source. A flywheel can be recharged countless times and has a long shelf life. Flywheels can be used for phenomenal improvements in both transport and home power generation. Support my flywheel energy storage initiative at: http://challenge.ecomagination.com/home/A-dual-use-power-co-generation-concept

you know, sum'n like that which was portable/clip-on instead of a fixed mount would kick @$$! then you can use it to charge outdoors while driving in the car on a visor/dashboard or walking in the sun on your purse or belt facing proper, as well as in the office/at school on a desk; I really like the application possibilities for this idea, but the existing level of output & $ to make/sell it are ???s...

A magnifying lens in front could add a lil boost, but between the panel & batteries you have still have the prob of relative gains as opposed to costs so you may wanna combine it w/ kinetic/shake energy as well as perhaps an on-grid back-up plug-in w/ a draw limiter to keep it charged more efficiently than if it were plugged in directly... so as you move & it is clipped to a purse, back-pack or pocket it can still charge beyond the solar needs to be realistic of the 5V/500mA demands to charge sum'n... A meter to tell you how much power is available & even better how much charge time relative to the device's draw would just make this a million $s!

Another thing is incorporating a small/cheap pulse motor built-in to constantly charge the batteries, allowing the solar to be smaller/cheaper, especially if it were small enough (see: http://challenge.ecomagination.com/home/free-solar-cell ) could be more of a support system in combination w/ 2 or 3 other power generation sources to make it super-efficient, consistently reliable & easy to use...

IDK why people bother talking so much about how much light/energy is used to make it as there are variables to incorporate into it beyond that. As if it were only for the purpose of charging the solar but their point is the loss/Gain I think...

However, instead of questioning the limits of the base idea, there should be more constructive additions to ideas to enhance the functionality... I understand the basis of the idea is to use wasted energy we consume anyway to do sum'n worthwile w/ it & that you may not have the details worked out to make it work perfectly yet, but you are onto sum'n big 4 sure just by thinking about it!

Hope my comment inspires you to try a few things to make your idea work... & that you support my ideas as well! Thanks & Have a Nice Day - Chris www.GotDragon.com

Welcome to the world of Rhea
Rhea is the Greek goddess of earth, sky, and flow. She was born from the Greek goddess Ge who brought forth all life, breathing life and form into all matter. Now history repeated itself and GE has once again breathe life and form into Rhea. Thanks to the ecomagination challenge Rhea has been reborn.
Rhea (recycling home energy appliance) has been born out of a necessity to save energy and recycle heat, heat that we currently discard. She is a combination of appliances working in conjunction with one another. Rhea has the capability to remove more heat from our gray water than was added in the first place. She improves our indoor air quality and harnesses heat from our attics and clothes dryers. Rhea can be incorporated into any type of heating system and lower its overall operating costs.
Rhea is simple in concept, easy to understand, uncomplicated to build and trouble free to install and operate. She provides many services to a homeowner most of which are currently unavailable and she performs them automatically, making life easier.
Rhea’s Benefits:
1 She can save more than 40% of a home’s hot water bill.
2 She can increase the fresh air intake’s temperature by up to 75% and save on a heating bill.
3 She can supply or supplement all or part of a home’s heating and cooling.
4 Rhea provides instant warm water at all faucets and helps conserve water.
5 She can reduce the temperature of one’s attic making cooling easer or unnecessary.
6 Rhea recycles that attic heat and uses it to preheat the hot water.
7 She can recycle the heat from a clothes dryer and process the lint again making life easier.
8 Rhea can provide endless hot water.
9 She can vastly improve a home’s indoor air quality.
10 Rhea contains a bag free central vacuum which only requires minimum maintenance.
11 She can remove stale air from up to 5 locations throughout the home.
12 Rhea can pay for herself in less than 10 years!
13 Rhea is modular and can be quickly assembled.
14 Because of this parts of Rhea can be quickly replaced and fixed off site.
15 Rhea provides a 10 gallon power flush to the sewer line and is invaluable to all municipalities.
16 Overall Rhea can save a family of 4 $400 or more per year in energy savings.

Rhea is the next step in conservation and when combined with our Smart Washer/ Dryer combo (SWorD) is a perfect fit to finish the GE Net Zero Home. Visit me and tell me what you think?

I think this is a really good idea, as long as there's not a whole lot of maintenance or an expensive price. Can you offer feedback on my idea?

What do you think it would cost? If you placed it on a west facing window with the charging ports on the back it would work.

Great idea , and a simple and elegant design by the looks of it , like @afriedman said , would be nice to see some savings graphs .

I can't say there is anything wrong with the idea of generating energy from light we are already using, assuming the benefits clearly outweigh the costs? Have you done some life cycle analysis of this product to make sure it all adds up? I'd be curious.

Thanks,
Allison

Allison

@RyanHess I question how much power can be saved from using the power of indoor light to charge say my Iphone.

Quote from @RyanHess website, "When you have a unit on your wall collecting indoor light energy non-stop, this energy adds up in the same way, providing all the necessary charging energy a device owner would ever need."

From that quote it says "NON-STOP" So it must mean you must have the lights on in your house 24hrs a day.

A light bulb is typically 60 watts; leave it on for an hour you have used 60
watt hours or 0.06 kwh for a day thats 1440 watt's used or 1.44 kwh

A Iphone charges at 5 watts; leave it charging for a hour you have used 5 watt hours or 0.005 kwh for a day thats 120 watts or 0.12 kwh.

but normally to charge a iphone it takes around 2-3 hours which is 10-15 watts or 0.01kwh - 0.015kwh....

I may have this entirely wrong, but from what I understand.. Would it not take more energy and money to use this product then to just simply plug your device the wall? Plus the price to just purchase this item would even add to that bill, which is not much of a concern to me as long as it actually helped conserve energy...