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RE: Why do we pay so much to live? - Living Free
That's an interesting article, and indeed there may be something to it - the article says that home-made batteries is indeed a lot cheaper than AA-batteries.
The article also correctly identifies that the energy doesn't really come from the potatoes, it comes from the zinc, which eventually will have to be replaced. Still, zinc is a lot cheaper than AA-batteries from the shop.
Yeh i think that to just get some zinc is much better that a solarpannel and 12v battery.. Alot lighter,cheaper and enviromental friendly
Sunshine is a free resource, zinc is not. Though, at least early solar panels was considered as a scam to some people, as more energy went into the production of the panels than what could be taken out from the panels during their lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc#Production
First one has to do mining to extract minerals containing oxidized zinc in greater amounts, then one has to puts lots of energy into it to purify and de-oxidize the zinc. The theoretical limit for how much energy you can get out of the zinc is equal to the amounts of energy spent de-oxidizing it.
So, only a small fraction of all the energy that has gone into the production can then be drawn out through your battery. In addition the minerals containing zinc is a non-renewable resource. And in addition to that again, the mining is environmentally harmful.
After depleting the zinc battery, you'll end up with some brine/soil/potatoes with high concentrations of zinc in it, what is the environmental impact of just dumping it on the ground or in the sea? (my guess: insignificant - though the wikipedia article does state that plants and fish will get problems if exposed for too much zinc).
I did think about how the zinc was taken from the ground and obviously that is not env friendly :)
The sun is free yeh but zinc you can carry in a rucksack and like we realised lastnight was that you can travel with recycled metals which are recycled of course ☺ ,put your tent up,bang the rods in the ground,and hook up to electric. Even in the middle of the night :)
There are many factors of course,all of which an interlect like yourself can expose and teach me and others about but im not that diverse in knowledge haha so for me to get electric from trash metals and dirt, is just a winner haha:)
I don't know if you find a lot of zinc in the garbage bins? :-)
Zinc batteries packs energy much more densely than even the most expensive Li-Ion rechargable batteries, on that part you're totally correct.
Solar panels exists in very light-weight editions ... and they're even coming in fairly cheap nowadays, the only problem is that those cheap panels gives very little electricity. Still, I believe that in the not-so-far future one will be able to buy rucksacks covered with solar panels and with built-in Li-Ion battery packs and both USB and USB-C-outlets for charging devices and laptops.
I have the BioLite Campfire by the way ... the BioLite company is probably something to watch, though when I Google for "BioLite Campfire" and google tells me to buy the "BioLite Campfire #2" from my local sports shop I realize they are no longer a small "indie-startup" ... :-)
I never used it for its intended purpose ... charging cellphone batteries. Now that we got the boat and a family we've stopped doing long hiking journeys ... I can't remember last time we slept in a tent! It's a bit sad. However, I use this thing frequently in the winter time for grilling sausages on the go. Making a bon-fire in the snow takes so much time and resources, but with this thing we can grill sausages without spending more time searching for wood than grilling sausages :-)
Seems like the second edition is even better
I also got a flashlight that I bought from DX, it's working from a Li-Ion 18650-battery but with USB interface so one can use the flashlight for charging devices on the go, as well as charge the battery from a USB source.
like mini rocket stoves! My laptop decided to stop making noise and is playing silly buggers so its getting use of the warranty tomorrow (second time in its 2.5month life!) but used subtitiles for the vids :)
youd be amazed of what you can find in the trash, maybe zinc is used on fridges, there are always fridges and washine machines in certain places. I will do a post on the things i got from trash for a laugh in the future ranging from new bluetooth head sets to perfectly fine dewalt electric planer!
Apropos fridges...
Back when I lived up in Tromsø I bought my first sail boat, but before picking it up I needed to build a mooring buoy for it. The mooring was made from various junk. On the junkyard they had just been throwing a big claw of an excavator, it would be just the perfect piece of anchor for my boat, but since it weighted a full ton or more and was lying in the very bottom of the container, it was not possible for us to fetch it and get it home.
In the end, I found fridges to be the easiest thing. We picked up fridges from the return-point for electrics, took out the compressor part due to environmental concerns, carried the fridge down to the sea at the very lowest water, filled it up with rocks, sealed it with ropes, tied up some cheap air matresses on top - with slip-knots (theoretically it should be just to pull a rope to release the cargo, in practice there was always problems), waited for the high water, rowed it out in position and dumped it there. Totally I used three fridges and some other junk to anchor up the mooring buoy.
I was totally clueless on what I was doing, I'm a third-generation landlubber, if not more ... and the current past my home was super-strong, had to do an emergency dumping of one cargo as the current was too strong, even when rowing as hard as I could I was moving in the wrong direction. I did so many mistakes and had so many problems - and this was in the middle of the winter as well - but eventually I made it, and in the aftermath I can laugh of most of the mistakes. I certainly learned a lot.