Archive for the ‘energy’ Category

Made a quick rocket stove with bricks.  Put a Peltier cooler on the back and got a fire going.  Measured the current, volts, and watts produced from a single Peltier cooler.  A cooling fan and aluminum heatsink with a 12V portable battery helped.

Peltier_Cooler_Rocket_Stove

Peltier Cooler (also called TEC or Thermo Electric Cooler) - resting against a hot brick

Video of experiment…

Continue reading ‘Peltier Cooler Generates Electricity’ »

A 12V battery is getting low and needs some wind to charge up.  The wind turbine outside faithfully stands watch high above the ground, waiting for a chance to spin in the wind.

wind-turbine-waiting

Continue reading ‘Hoping for Wind’ »

Review of a 12V splitter.  This is also called a 3-way cigarette lighter adapter .

12V adapter-splitter review

12V adapter-splitter review

This adapter plugs into a single 12V battery outlet and splits it into three outlets.  Could be used to power three gadgets from your car or from wherever else you have a 12V outlet.  I have one in my house for off-the-grid backup power.

Video review…

Continue reading ‘12V Three-Way Adapter’ »

The solar lights on my property have been dim or have been completely off at night.  Maintenance can be done on these lamps to get them working again.

LED light maintenance

Continue reading ‘Solar Light Maintenance; Powers Hydrolysis, too’ »

Make Your Own Air Battery


The video below shows three different electrolytes for a cell.  Which electrolyte will be the best, producing the most voltage and current?

Continue reading ‘Make Your Own Air Battery’ »

Making a waffle out of sodium acetate trihydrate. This is the same stuff that makes up “hot ice” and heating pads.

How is the liquid made?

Continue reading ‘Sodium Acetate Trihydrate Waffle’ »

Edited Jun-10-2010

Acid can release electricity from metal.  What is an easy-to-find source of acid?   Tomatoes!

VIDEO

The video above shows how an LED and a buzzer are powered by a tomato battery.  It’s just two different metals dipped into mashed tomatoes.  It even helps charge a AAA battery.

How does this work?

Continue reading ‘Tomato Battery’ »

The video below shows how to make a combiner box to allow solar panels and a wind turbine to charge the same battery.  Also shown in the video: How to make an extension cord out of spare CRT cables and heat shrink.

CRT-cables-converted-to-extension-cable

Continue reading ‘Combiner box for solar and wind to charge a single battery’ »

Peltier-Cooler-captures-water-from-air

Can a Peltier cooler be used to extract moisture from the air using off-the-grid power?

Continue reading ‘Peltier Cooler as Dehumidifier Grows Ice Crystals’ »

Wind_turbine_outside_Wal-Mart_McKinney_Texas

Was driving through Texas and came across an unexpected sight. Spotted wind turbines and solar panels outside Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club in McKinney, TX. I was really surprised to see them in such a public place and got the camera out so I could share with you guys.

Continue reading ‘Wind turbines and solar panels outside Wal-Mart in McKinney, Texas’ »