When going off the grid, it’s safe to assume that most folks will be relying on solar panels for much of their electrical needs.
However, a lack of sunlight can present a few problems for any would-be prepper. If only there was a cheap and simple way to supplement a solar panel array on those cloudy days.
Fortunately, there is such a way, and I’m willing to bet that most of you reading this have never heard of it (I hadn’t until recently).
It’s called a Dickens Magnesium Battery after it’s inventor, Stephen Dickens; though the principles behind its function have been around for a very long time. If anything it may be more of a rediscovery, than a completely novel idea.
This device is also called a “Galvanic Cell,” which has been around since the late 1700’s, and possibly even earlier if the theories surrounding the Baghdad Battery are to be believed. It generates small electrical currents by capturing the energy produced by the corrosion of a metal.
In this case, the Dickens battery uses the magnesium as its source of electricity, which many you probably already know if you’ve ever used a fire starter, is a very energy dense material. The design is simple enough that pretty much anyone can make it.
You start out with thick, magnesium rods, which you can buy on Amazon. After that, you’ll need to fasten a metal electrode to the rod with a hose clamp. The metal used for this step is never specified, so feel free to try out a few different metals to see what nets you the best results (more on that in a moment).
After that, you wrap the rod in porous foam, and then coil copper wire around the foam. The idea is to allow water to pass through the foam, but to keep the copper from touching the electrode. Doing so won’t cause anything catastrophic, but your battery will stop producing energy.
After it’s all said and done, it should look like this:
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However, a lack of sunlight can present a few problems for any would-be prepper. If only there was a cheap and simple way to supplement a solar panel array on those cloudy days.
Fortunately, there is such a way, and I’m willing to bet that most of you reading this have never heard of it (I hadn’t until recently).
It’s called a Dickens Magnesium Battery after it’s inventor, Stephen Dickens; though the principles behind its function have been around for a very long time. If anything it may be more of a rediscovery, than a completely novel idea.
This device is also called a “Galvanic Cell,” which has been around since the late 1700’s, and possibly even earlier if the theories surrounding the Baghdad Battery are to be believed. It generates small electrical currents by capturing the energy produced by the corrosion of a metal.
In this case, the Dickens battery uses the magnesium as its source of electricity, which many you probably already know if you’ve ever used a fire starter, is a very energy dense material. The design is simple enough that pretty much anyone can make it.
You start out with thick, magnesium rods, which you can buy on Amazon. After that, you’ll need to fasten a metal electrode to the rod with a hose clamp. The metal used for this step is never specified, so feel free to try out a few different metals to see what nets you the best results (more on that in a moment).
After that, you wrap the rod in porous foam, and then coil copper wire around the foam. The idea is to allow water to pass through the foam, but to keep the copper from touching the electrode. Doing so won’t cause anything catastrophic, but your battery will stop producing energy.
After it’s all said and done, it should look like this:
Read Entire Article »
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