One of the worst feelings is paying your rent, watching the money drain from your account only to receive your utilities bill just a few days later. It seems no matter how low you turn your heat, how often you shut out the lights, and how short you keep every shower, that utility bill just keeps climbing.
Especially in the winter time when heat eats away at the monthly budget, we all kind of consider sitting in the dark at home in coats, hats, and blankets, allowing the seasonal depression to wash over us in an attempt to save a couple hundred bucks.
Perhaps, this winter, however, we won’t have to worry so much. Leonie Schliesing on TikTok seems to have found a solution to her own energy crisis that may just be keeping our homes warm and well-lit all winter long.
Leonie had a thriving plant in a dark corner of her house and was at a loss on how to make sure it got the light it needed as the days got shorter and less and less light came through. She had a lamp that could help, but no outlet close enough to the plant for it to be of any use.
So, she pulled out a solar-powered portable charger and plugged it into the lamp, allowing the light from the lamp to help the plant photosynthesize as it continued to charge the solar-powered charger. The never-ending loop of charge and power was certainly a stroke of genius, and Leonie is rightfully giving herself genius status for her brilliant innovation.
Commenters are just as blown away as she is, saying that she has invented a revolutionary infinite energy loop. Others doubted that it would last forever but many people were begging for a link to the lamp and the charger to solve energy crises of their own.
Even Google was scratching its head, saying that it needed to do some research about how exactly this seemingly never-ending chain of solar energy works.
According to the Department of Energy, solar power uses solar radiation, also known as electromagnetic radiation, and turns it into energy. When the sun shines down on solar panels, they absorb the energy that sunlight emits through something called photovoltaic cells. That energy creates an electrical charge that moves in response to the solar panel’s internal electrical field, allowing electricity to flow. That electricity can power anything from cars to heaters to lamps that allow your plants to grow.
Unfortunately, experts in the comment sections say that the hack likely won’t last forever. However, she may have tricked her solar power charger and her plant into accepting artificial sunlight for an extended timeframe. Regardless, plants don’t need sunlight for 24 hours a day so when the charger finally does die, Leonie can stick it in the sunlight to recharge and put it right back to work in her energy loop.
Either way, her clever idea solved her problem and inspired thousands of others to do the same.