# Earth Battery?



## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

Does anyone have any experience with "Earth batteries"?

On a quick google they do look, interesting.

Like perhaps an easier and quicker device to install.


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## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

I don't see why they wouldn't work, only about a volt per 'cell' and when tied together - many.

This is very similar to a thermocouple that is two different metals in contact that generate a current in the presence of heat (proportional).


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

A thermocouple requires heat being added.

Whereas if dirt will act as an electrolyte, then until the plates corrode it should continue to produce power.

If folks are looking at how much you could power with one 12VDC battery, two, three or four; this would possibly do the trick. Plus there is no re-charging.


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## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

> A thermocouple requires heat being added.


That is what a presence of heat means. (The Sun will do.)

Different metals employed in a thermocoupple yield different ammounts of voltage. The same may be true with an earth battery, if you are interested in effeciency.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

It would be hard to make a chemical electric cell that doubles as a thermoelectric cell too. I can't see how an efficiency gain would be possible.

ET1: yeah, the earth battery can run small stuff like 12v led arrays for lighting if you hook several in series. It's just as easy to make a battery pack though. 6 inch long .5" copper tubing and 1/4 steel rod works well. I did this but am unwilling to make 4 or 5 just have lighting just yet. Each "cell" produced 1.2-1.6 volts.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

4mil sheets of copper, aluminum, tin, or steel cost relatively little.

If each pair of plates can do 0.5vdc, stack 28 and you get your 14vdc cell.

If each cell produces 100milliamps, 10 cells gets you a one ampere battery.

A bank of batteries enough to provide power for a home?

When the plates get 'worn-out' it only means that the surface molecular layer has ionized. Scrubbing will remove that and the plate is 're-charged'.

If the plates can produce power in this manner, then operating such a power source really gets down to how much can be produced before they need to be cleaned. And how you mechanize the cleaning.

The real 'fuel' being burned through would be elbow-grease. but it might be an option rather than oil, coal, wood or peat.


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## Dahc (Feb 14, 2006)

ET1 SS said:


> 4mil sheets of copper, aluminum, tin, or steel cost relatively little.
> 
> If each pair of plates can do 0.5vdc, stack 28 and you get your 14vdc cell.
> 
> ...


The problem I encountered with using regular copper and steel was the steel. I used vinegar as my electrolyte and the steel came from the hardware store. Just 4' rods, 1/4" dia. I don't know what grade it was but after only a few days there was excessive corrosion. I don't think the steel rods would have held up even for 6 months. Maybe a better grade of steel would last a little longer, I don't know. The wear on it will be a lot less since you're using ground moisture as your electrolyte. You may want to use thicker steel than 4mil. It will corrode at a much faster rate and the corrosion is different but corrosion on the copper can be wiped off with a rag and heavy duty cleaner.

I like the plate idea. That could be even more compact than what I was going to build.


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