Fruit Batteries - Use Fruit to Generate Electricity for a Light Bulb. If you have fruit, a couple of nails, and wire then you can generate electricity to turn on a light bulb.
Learn how to make a fruit battery. It's fun, safe, and easy. Here's What You Need citrus fruit (e.g., lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit) copper nail, screw or wire (about 2" or 5 cm long) zinc nail or screw or galvanized nail (about 2" or 5 cm long) holiday light with 2" or 5 cm leads (enough wire to connect it to the nails) Make a Fruit BatterySet the fruit on a table and gently roll it around to soften it up.
You want the juice to be flowing inside the fruit without breaking its skin. How To Make Electricity From Salt Water. How to reuse water bottles. We all know the three “R”s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Reducing can be accomplished by purchasing an eco-friendly bottle, and keeping it with you to refill from the tap or water cooler. As for recycling, almost every municipality has some type of either curbside recycling, or a local place you can take your used plastics. The fun comes when we come to the third “R,” reuse. Statistics say that only about 20 percent of plastic water bottles are actually recycled, which leaves 80 percent to end up in landfills, or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Learning how to reuse water bottles can help consumers save money, provide fun projects for families and kids and protect the environment from over-burdened landfills. Ideas for reuse range from décor to function to gardening. If you aren’t feeling crafty, simply filling the bottles with water and freezing them comes in handy for first aid, or keeping people and pets cool.
More recycling stories on MNN: My amazing DIY solar generator. I remember the inspiration for building my solar generator clearly.
It was close to 20 years ago and we were camping at the dunes in Oregon. Our campground neighbor, in a huge RV, ran his generator for about two hours one evening. It was annoying beyond compare — we go camping for peace and quiet. We later found out from overheard conversations that the RV people were using the gas generator to charge their camcorder. Apparently they did not have a DC adapter or know about a thing called an inverter.
More modern needs Twenty years ago I did not have a camcorder or a digital camera. My solar generator is made up of a single 12 volt, 10 watt solar panel that feeds a sealed 12 volt gel battery. Portable and silent A couple years ago we did a big tour of four states here in the west. One of our best camps was in Zion, where we spent four full days and nights. Emergency power, too Back here at home we have used the solar generator to power our computer’s DSL modem during power outages. From beer bottles to solar water heater. Make your own solar power generator for less than $300. Whether you live off grid or just want backup power for emergencies, having a small solar generator at home can definitely come in handy.
While most store-bought solar generators can be pretty pricey, you can actually create your own with parts easily acquired through the internet or at local stores for $200 to $300 – and you don’t have to be an engineer to do it. An online tutorial created by Phil Heiple features easy-to-follow instructions with amusing illustrations that guide you through each of the eight steps. Once you obtain the parts, which include a small solar panel, a battery, a DC input and an AC inverter, assembly takes about an hour to complete. When you're done assembling your new DIY solar power generator, place the solar panel in the sun for five to eight hours to charge the battery the first time.
It takes one to three hours of exposure to direct sunlight to recharge, and once juiced up, it’ll give you about five hours of continuous use of small electronics. Solar powered aquaponics system. Solar Water Heaters.