Homemade Battery! - The DIY "Earth Battery" - Powers Clocks/Watches/Calcs/LED Lights....
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Homemade Battery. The DIY "Earth Battery". Earth Batteries are easy to make and produce enough power to run many items such as Lcd clocks, watches, pedometers, calculators, LED lighting and more. all that's needed is copper wire (from old extension cord etc.), several small bolts (screws or nails can also be used), an ice cube tray and dirt. that's it. makes a quick and easy battery. works best if it's made with moist dirt/soil. Note: every couple of days the dirt will "dry out" and the voltage will decrease. TO RECHARGE THE BATTERY; just add 1 or 2 teaspoons of water to each "cell" and the battery will be "recharged". for increased voltage make more than one battery and hook them together. Tip: try to use "galvanized" bolts, screws or nails - as they work the best. *included in this video is footage of a larger outdoor "single cell" earth battery i made. it's made using a 2' long piece of copper pipe and a giant (foot long) nail.
UPDATE:(5/25/2018) This battery has now been sitting on a shelf collecting dust for 4 years. so i decided to see if i could recharge it to "like new" condition - by just adding water. here's the youtube video link to see what happened • MY DIY Earth Battery (...
omfg! first time I did this in my life. got 12.66 volts!! it works!! I used the gold looking zinc plated bolts and squeezed half a lime in cup of water.
Is it dry dirt? Or do you wet it? Where was the cup of water with lime in this?
I actually tested my own after watching this to confirm its not a scam, but it's real!!
yep it's real 🙂✔
Love the information. I enjoy your videos. If an apocalypse happens, people are going to regret not watching these. Thanks for all the work.
Batteries won't really help in the acutal apocalyspe.
@@llllllllIIIIIIIIIIIwhat actual apocalypse?
you’d have to be living pretty comfortably to want to move on to generating electricity amidst the apocalypse. I’d be more worried about collecting food and water! Lol.
thanks for helping me get first place for engineering in the science fair 4 years ago. i even got accepted into nationals but i was stopped there. not like i wanted to go any further, i just wanted the pizza party
this actually works, made myself one yesterday for my electricity class
What kind of dirt do I use?
@@ericjohnson8586 you too man ? :)
@@ericjohnson8586 the dirty kind .
DId u get any amps?
Electricity class?
Adds a whole new meaning to the phrase, "connect your circuit to _ground_!" ;~P LOL
you sir, are a genious! :)
... thats where the meaning came from in the 1st place. all sayings etc have profound roots.
David Irving That was what I was referring to. sigh. and so was the OP. sigh x 2 seems you were the stupid one (no offence (not spelt with an s)) for not getting that.
oh the roots of the power of words lol
AuralVirus Or offense. I think that spelling is dependent on location or just personal preference.
Electricity is induced when two dissimilar alloys are in the presence of an electrolyte. You would improve upon this model by having a copper rod, your zinc coated bolts (galvanized) in each of the cells (cubes) then connecting them in series until the desired voltage is reached (may have to increase the number of cells under a load) then connect the same about in parallel to increase the amp hour rating of each earth battery so that is can power useful things (chargers ect.) You might also introduce a bit of salt water (an electrolyte) to improve conductivity and the electrolysis process.
So metal blends touching something that has electrolytes (or heat)?
@@TheLadyaec You may consider looking up "the Seebeck effect". Fascinating stuff
You realize they’re already in a series, right? The individual cubes are the cells, and the they’re in a series to make the “battery”, and he can then wire more “batteries” in parallel to increase the voltage and amperage to one load. Also, salt water likely wouldn’t increase the voltage at all because the dirt is already acting as the electrolyte and producing 0.5v per cell which is about average especially for that small of a cell. Adding more electrolytes to the solution that already has enough electrolytes won’t help and can actually cause the voltage to drop if the cell becomes too viscus.
I just realized your comment is from 7 years ago lol
@@TheToySoldier1985 I’d forgotten all about this. In series, voltage is additive. In parallel current is additive. Your comments are appreciated, thank you for your input.
I am from India and I have achieved 1st prize in my science project competition . Thankyou for sharing your knowledge and helping me . I love your behaviour and explanation .
Thankyou so much
If you push the bolts deeper in the dirt (if possible) then you get a bit more voltage. In your case you couldn't do it. A bit more deeper cells and longer bolts could have made it. This advice was only for the bolts and not the copper. No need to get the copper deeper. However, a few more cells do the same thing if needed, to get more volts. A combination of Stainless steel and aluminum works also well and I prefer that, especially if you want to dip often.
Very nice video, by the way. Thanks!
dip often?
What do you mean dip often?
@@Randy2747 By that I mean to water it more often. If its to dry, the experiment want work. There much be always moisture in it or no electricity.
Desertsun wrote what was also my thought:
"Note: every couple of days the dirt will "dry out" and the voltage will decrease. TO RECHARGE THE BATTERY; just add 1 or 2 teaspoons of water to each "cell" and the battery will be "recharged"."
This is Science for everyone! Great video for simply gadgets!
dirt cheap
lol
I cant aford tho :^(
stonks
Which kind of dirt is it sand and water
My question is how long can it light a light bulb
Gotta keep some copper wires and galvanized bolts in my car in case of an emergency hahaha
Well, this is rather interesting, so i'm most likely going to use this sometime, but oh man, didn't know you could literally take power out of earth, that's just... logical... yet quite cool :)
That moment you wake up and your NEO
*you're
wow, you've got yourself some fancy dirt there!! very cool project
im thinking would using several 55 gallon plastic bins with big rods and thicker gauge copper in them make it have a higher voltage output?
If I understand, the dirt is neutral. Isn't the reaction between the copper and the nail?
good eye.
+Andrew_Owens I tried similar esperiment at home and everytime i failed. I used a common 1,2 v 0,22A light bulb. I have to get some leds... Then i'll try again. Soil is neutral? should y use some acid?? :)
***** then the acid becomes the electrolyte, just like your car battery. if this produced a charge it would be because the dirt is wet. the capacitance of dirt is weak, and in this demonstration would only be a matrix to Hold an electrolyte not yet added. this is basically an unfinished battery.
@@sajkdnsaklfhnj what if you use dirt with an acidic ph level?
Could you do this for outdoor lighting with pot plants for your energy source ?
I was thinking the same?!
A tip from a curious Brazilian:
Try to use salt just below each earth cell, it will probably help when they are refilled with water.
instructions unclear i ended up making an arc reactor...from plastic bags.
woah...
I accidentally made a black hole, how to stop it please help
@@Andrew-ci1dg Glad you were able to figure it out man... You deserve a Nobel for all the accomplishments!....
@@Andrew-ci1dg get a divorce
😂😂😂😂
What's the internal resistance of something like this? Open circuit voltage is one thing, but how much does it drop when there's a load?
Magnesium Joint Sachet
The magnesium filings were saved. I placed them in a piece of paper towel. I laid a bare stranded copper wire in the filings. Then rolled the group like a joint. I then bent the metal joint in half and sealed it shut with a second piece of copper. I completed the magnesium sachet by twisting both wires together. I then tested the magnesium sachet with carbon in a tap water bath. The amps came in at 1.3 milliamperes. Again, the shaving have points and powered metal has alot of surface area by mass. This was a very small amount. This is the technique of modern battery manufacturing. It works well.
Will it work attached to an inverter to convert the bolts into a higher former electricity
We are going to use this one for class thanks!
Since you have the voltmeter/Amperemeter in hand, tell us how many Amps does it provide! That is more important that Voltage.
@Underrated Inventions You could try planting herbs in the soil cubes and see if you can put more energy energy into your food 😂🤣😆
I just made this using zinc plated iron bolts and got 6.8 volts out of it.
Can you kindly tell me what current range you are able to pull? Thank you
@Budget Boost DIY could you explain that, please?
Boooohoooo mines bigger than yours 🤣
I really like this. Thanks for sharing.
Very cool...now I have to try it!
I clicked this video just to hear him say "dirt" xD I love how he says it
How do you connect it to a thing like a calculator or in my case a string of LED lights… like fairy lights…
The Great Pyramid of Giza was actually a power producing machine ...
There are large aquifer's under these pyramids which add to the earths generation of power ....I think it you applied this technology to an area where there is a large under ground aquifers you would produce more power ..
Learn something new everyday. Thanks!
How can I up the voltage and current?
What if you mixed epson salt with the water would it have more volts
What could you use this for?
Thank you so much ... I'm building mine tomorrow
How did that go?
this may have been asked but what kind of milli amps will it put out?
Keep exploring my friends, you're on to more than you can truly understand. May I also suggest, adding some salt water to your soil, or trying it on a salt water river system banks.
Your dirt battery won’t fit in my calculator 😂😂 But, seriously great demo thank you 👍
delighted with this... better than a big bucket. this is portable. and i got the ice cube trays too.
well . 8 years ??? - did you build it or just post a pointless , meaningless message with nothing
The copper pole and nail in the ground caught me . How does that work.?
How much current did you get out of this?
Can this be put into a inverter and a toster or tv for camping
this. is very Cool stuff man you are a gift...!🍄
Substitute water with vinegar, or with salt water. Increases the acidity and conductivity. Should increase the voltage.
How do you connect the wires to complete the circuit?
hi. all you do is hook a wire to the first cell (in the row) and a wire to the last cell in the row. those will be the plus and the minus
@@desertsun02 I mean from cell to cell.
Hey, thats a great little video!....thanks, from lesley in New Zealand.
Are the screws at the end hooked together? It wasn't clear to me what the ends looked like.
Please enlighten me. Thank you
Is it the amount of dirt, the type of bolt as a rod ?
I live off grid and solar in the winter sucks. I was exploring the idea of using urine to generate something and sending that through my smaller charge controller to get even a small trickle of juice. But this dirt seems to do the trick, I wonder 🤔 if moisture from urine would help, larger cells..like cups. Bigger screws and thicker wire would give me more power?
How do you connect it to something? I see you have one screw / nail at the end on the left and the coffee wire on the right. Do you need to connect both the nail and the wire to whatever you’re connecting it to? Or just touch the copper wire to the object? If you had a lightbulb how would you make it light up? And which side is which (positive and negative) if you did have to connect both
What about using a series of 5 gallon buckets? what would the output be on something like that?
mmerchant79 .... It would be no different. The idea of this is misleading. The dirt is NOT providing the "free energy". It is just the electrolyte, or medium, that the energy is passing through. You could use almost anything from lemon juice to potatoes as the medium. The energy is coming from the reaction between the zinc on the bolts and the copper in the wire. Eventually, they will be used up and corrode, and all the dirt in the world won't give you any more energy...
Of course, the energy required to make that zinc and copper is more than what you get from them. That's why it's considered a Battery, and not an energy Source...like oil or nuclear...
jc knight Some part of me is taking issue with you calling oil or nuclear an energy source, but I'm sure you know that both of them are extremely unsustainable..
kai2698 That's the political/partisan side of you taking issue. Scientifically, there is no doubt that all fossil fuels and nuclear are an energy source.
That is simply defined by getting more energy out of it, than we put in extracting it from the Earth. Solar and Wind can be an energy source as well, it's just that they are a more expensive one with a much longer payback time.
I happen to run on 100% of both of them, but mainly because I enjoy being self-sufficient. Not so much because they are cheaper, per se....... (Although, ironically, once you add in Govt. taxes & fees, it is. Particularly since most utilities charge you fees just to be hooked up, even if you don't use a bit of them.)
jc knight It's awesome to know that's you're running 100% on wind and solar! Are you living in somewhere with a lot of sun and/or windy? Or do you just have a lot of solar panels and/or windmills?
kai2698 I live full time in my RV and generally travel to the desert Southwest for winter and Montana,Wyoming, etc for Summer. I have 800 Watts of Solar panels and a 1KW pop-up wind generator. Between the both of them, they take care of all my electrical needs, and I often have enough extra to recharge other campers who are boondocking.
I haven't had rent or utility bill in 8 years...and with a 38ft slide out, I have all the comforts of any nice apartment...Plus, if I don't like my neighbours, or just chose to have any at all, I can just move anywhere I like...
you can put salt water and will improve, but you do not need much
That is pretty awesome but how do you keep it attached to the item you want to charge?
works with tap water as a medium too, same results
using normal dirt?
how can it be equalized acid-lead battery which is 12 v, and can it be connected to inverter to make 220 ac volts.?
If I understand the theory right, (I’ve been learning Ohms law for two weeks now so forgive if I’m wrong), copper and galvanized metals (as well as others) have two different levels of conductivity. They are both conductors, but one is more efficient than the other creating an imbalance. Electrons want to travel from one pole to the other (toward the path of least resistance, or the neutral pole) which creates electromotive force, AKA "voltage".
A battery does not "create" electricity, but "stores" it, which in my mind makes this more of a natural “generator” than a battery, unless the earth itself is viewed as the storage battery, and using the two different metals channels the flow of voltage.
The earth itself provides the electric charge, (through gravity/magnetism I think) so connecting several of these power “generator/batteries” systems together in series should double the voltage in each group. Hooking them in series parallel should also up the amps. If you used deep cycle truck batteries as storage and these earth generators/batteries as a charging source, you would have a reserve capacity in your battery bank similar to those in a solar power system. Any thoughts?
Not bad for the most part, the biggest flaw might be with the deep cycle batteries as storage, since current always seeks balance, so unless the source is not greater than the destination, current will only flow until both are equal...however some simple circuitry could remedy this, so keep with your studies, and learn about diodes and capacitors, as incorporating them in your "system" will help avoid this limitation!
Peace, Love, & Light!
TheSmokingGun57 awesome
I was wondering the same thing if you connect enough together in theory I don't see why you couldn't charge a battery bank...? I think you would need the voltage to be a bit higher than 12v for it to actually charge? I live off grid this would be cool to have as a back up way of charging my batteries if it works.. might try it.
@christopher4535 I'm wondering how effective it would be to up the size and use a garden bed instead of ice tray. Each cell is a plant and it is constantly charged with watering, living soil, root system
this is amazing 😲 I gotta try this! thanks for posting!
oh ... only 7 years , well did you build one ?????
Pretty cool!. Any amps in that? I would relay like to know. If you made larger cells, Would you get more voltage?
Interesting, I'm definitely going to try.
sounds good. let me know if you have any questions.
Ah man, that's off the hook!
if i use a bigger ice cube hence the amount of dirt is increased, should the length of copper wire need to be increase too?
But what do you use it for? And how do you hook it up?😊
If you used two ice trays would that double the voltage?
Sorry if that's a stupid question
hi there. it's not a stupid question. and yep, it would double the voltage (as long as you hook them in series)
Wire a few up in parallel and you could probably melt metal.
Hello sir can I use a solid copper wire instead of this strip wire. Thank you
hi there. yes, solid copper wire should work too. i've recently bought scrap pieces of copper sheet to make one using that.
So 4× these will reliability run 12volts???
Fanstastic ! Thanks for posting !
amazing....bro wwat is the principle?
How much time you battery last until it needs to be replased - dirth ?
I screwed up about the texture. It is area of the tall jar of water and the 12-inch rod of magnesium. I never expected to see 5 milliamperes and jumped to a wrong conclusion. I performed a bad science experiment by making changes before duplicating the experiment of someone else. I shaved the magnesium first, with hopes of making a new modern type of cell. I then used that textured rod which produced much higher amperage. 5/16" diameter rod. However, on the second attempt with a smooth rod the 4 milliamperes was still true. I then learned proximity of rods makes higher amperage. The large vessel and rods made that possible to determine. That is a 100% and I tested that several times. The amps would drop into the 2 range and as I brought them closer would climb up into the 6-7 but settle back down in the 4-ma range.
you should try adding a acid to the dirt to increase conductivity. use orange juice or lemon juice and see what it does.
this was pretty cool, it makes me wonder how we are not using this on a bigger scale, for things like a cloths dryer maybe
A clothes dryer 🤣🤣, maybe we can power a city. Lol
oh ... only 6 years and nobody advanced it ...... and you believed it ....... hahahahahh
good staff.. pretty.. cool.... I like it..
can we put table salt solution to wet the dirt? does it will give higher amps?
This would be really cool to make a big one of these. What would you say would be the limit, or is there a limit? That may sound silly but this could be a life saver! Not much to carry around in a bug out bag, cause everywhere you go there is dirt!
Can the dirt be any type of dirt like the one found in backyard?
hi there. yep. any dirt should work. sand also.
I wonder if moistening the soil with salt water would increase the efficiency/power?
It may be that the challenge is to use only dirt and metal. but what about adding acid and a bit of water to the dirt.. understadibly it will up the voltage but what about the amps
Also if it gives off volts is it a positive polarity? I am not very electrical savvy. Savvy?
How many milli-amps did you get?
How could you hook up a conventional plug outlet to this? Would wire in the dirt then hooked to a converter work if you used with 3 or more trays in sequence? Could a set up like that potentially run a coffee maker, toaster, etc.?
No. Though he was showing 4 -5 volts you wouldn't even get a full amp of current out of one of these trays. Coffee makers and toasters draw way too much current for something like this. You would probably need like 30 or more trays wired to give you the correct voltage and enough current, tied to an inverter and then it still might not work. With three or four trays you might be able to charge a phone if you regulated the output.
Never ever. These trays may produce 5 volts but the current is more like if you are lucky 20mA. To put that in perspective you would need 4000 of these trays to run a toaster.
Would the voltage increase if the dirt wasn't watered but rather moistened with distilled vinegar or another acidic liquid?
yes or lemon juice
Super video
Increasing the amperage for earth batteries is quite simple. A law of physics states that wiring in parallel will add the amps of two power sources. We simple wire a solar panel to the earth battery. We build the earth battery to the desired voltage in series. Earth batteries are the cheapest voltage around. Then wire a solar panel to the EB in parallel. Boom best of both worlds. Real power.
Is there a way to take this dirt power and use it to charge car batteries or laptop batteries?
How long does it work for?
It would be interesting to see several of these ice cube tray earth batteries stacked together in series. Maybe a stack of 3 trays would give you around 12V?
Tools2Survive hi there. you should be able to make a "12v battery" using as few as 2 of them (as i was ultimately able to get this earth batteries output voltage to just over 6v by "fully saturating" the soil).
desertsun02 Using a drip hose with a timer could make this maintenance free. You could also make several double stacked ice cube tray earth batteries (12v) and connect them in parallel to increase the amperage.
+Tools2Survive yeah .. let's do this. Im gonna try to power a dc motor using this.. will tell you the results in a few days..
+Tools2Survive funny thing is they made these thousands of years ago in huge clay jars, wonder what they used those for back in the day.hmmmmm.......
+Abhimanyu Kashyap So?
Any type of dirt is okay to use?
Can you charge the earth battery with a soler panel
Big thumbs up for this vid!!
can you ad vinegar to it? would that boost it?
Could this be built in a bigger scale so that it could charge an electric car like a Tesla Model S? Where I live, we have large planters so I thought I could use them to charge my car.
i didn't found zinc coated bolts anywhere near to me. what should i use now?
+Ahm Khaled I don't know where you are, but the NEW U. S. pennies are made of zinc with copper plating. If you scratch off the copper with say, sandpaper, or the like, you'll expose the zinc core.Some will do several pennies, say 8-10, scratch the copper off one side only, stacking them up, with vinegar (acidic solution) soaked small pieces of paper between them. Always face all copper or zinc sides the same way (i.e., face up). You should get about 1.5 volts from that many pennies....amps would be kinda low, I think, but enough to operate a lite, maybe charge a low-volt, low-amp device...play with either solution or number of pennies to change amt. of output...
Would using vinegar instead of water with the dirt increase the effectiveness of this at all?
Can't wait to start playing
what did you use the battery that was put directly into the earth? Have you ever used these batteries for gardening purposes? My hypothesis is that this is one of the missing elements for use in the gardening situation. I might give it a try this season. but I would like some input from someone that's made one already....
Have you tried having the copper-end towards north and galvanized iron towards south?
will this work with nails? do they have to be polished to work?
Does it produce heat? I wanna try it for a project.