offgrid
New member
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2025
- Messages
- 3
I have the solar system, the generator (5 of them for different things) and the problem I have is in winter time after 21 years of living in the mountains off grid, I had to come up with something. So one day I was looking around and saw a book on earth batteries on google. Just interested by the idea of having even LED lights running and maybe charging a phone so i didn't have to put gas in the generator or use up what solar I had. So upon getting the book, I found that earth batteries not only ran the telegraph systems all over the world back in the day, but are now used in over 1800 communities. So I built one.
Concept is two different metals are put int the wet earth and they create voltage, generally around 1 volt. However, the types of metals and sizes make a big difference. Now, the bigger you go, you need diodes, charge controllers for charging your solar battery bank (Which I did) and it works great giving it a trickle charge all night and even 24 hours a day. Some days I get hardly any sun. A few hours in winter on a good day. So I have a yard light, lamp, and a battery bank charging system off earth batteries. Now, there is a great chart in the book that show what you can expect with different metals and how many years they last. I started small (yard light and LED lamp) and worked up from there with small metal rods. Then went bigger for the battery charger.
I cannot say the name of the book by forum rules or unless the Admin allows it if they read this, but the first thing that pops up when you search for Earth Battery book is that book every time. Must be popular.
If anyone is interested, I will post photos as I build my next LED lamp. Just post you are interested and I will gladly share.
There is so much in the book that cannot be covered in a post or posts because of the different metals, the different methods, diodes, increasing voltage and amperage and other things that I recommend the book or reading around the net, but nothing beats having the right information or you will get a tiny bit of voltage and amps and you want more than that.
Why I also think the old tech idea is great is for those who live in the arctic where there is no sunlight for months in winter time.
Like me, days are getting a lot shorter. Soon I will have pretty much no daylight and that has always been the problem.
There is some videos on youtube, but they are just for tinkering around, but if you want real power to work with, you need a guide with illustrations and detailed how-to build it. Depends on what you want.
I had to laugh at the first LED earth battery lamp I built and it works and is still working great. Now, our ancestors built pyramids and massive structures and the Baghdad battery goes back centuries and they didn't need gas for generators or solar panels for lights. Then came along arc lamps and how did they run them? Earth batteries. First telegraphs ran off earth batteries. Even the first electroplating used earth batteries, even electric clocks instead of using tumblers were using earth batteries. Amazing how many things were running off earth batteries before electricity was running along poles house to house. Street lights, miners used them for running lights in tunnels, and they were and are still used in remote areas to run sensors for scientific research.
I also think it would be a great learning experience for kids if parents don't have the time to see if it works, have them build some LED lamps and test it out.
I am excited about it and thought I would share. The amazing old tech still works.
You cannot buy them, but you can build them.
When all else fails, use what our ancestors used.
Concept is two different metals are put int the wet earth and they create voltage, generally around 1 volt. However, the types of metals and sizes make a big difference. Now, the bigger you go, you need diodes, charge controllers for charging your solar battery bank (Which I did) and it works great giving it a trickle charge all night and even 24 hours a day. Some days I get hardly any sun. A few hours in winter on a good day. So I have a yard light, lamp, and a battery bank charging system off earth batteries. Now, there is a great chart in the book that show what you can expect with different metals and how many years they last. I started small (yard light and LED lamp) and worked up from there with small metal rods. Then went bigger for the battery charger.
I cannot say the name of the book by forum rules or unless the Admin allows it if they read this, but the first thing that pops up when you search for Earth Battery book is that book every time. Must be popular.
If anyone is interested, I will post photos as I build my next LED lamp. Just post you are interested and I will gladly share.
There is so much in the book that cannot be covered in a post or posts because of the different metals, the different methods, diodes, increasing voltage and amperage and other things that I recommend the book or reading around the net, but nothing beats having the right information or you will get a tiny bit of voltage and amps and you want more than that.
Why I also think the old tech idea is great is for those who live in the arctic where there is no sunlight for months in winter time.
Like me, days are getting a lot shorter. Soon I will have pretty much no daylight and that has always been the problem.
There is some videos on youtube, but they are just for tinkering around, but if you want real power to work with, you need a guide with illustrations and detailed how-to build it. Depends on what you want.
I had to laugh at the first LED earth battery lamp I built and it works and is still working great. Now, our ancestors built pyramids and massive structures and the Baghdad battery goes back centuries and they didn't need gas for generators or solar panels for lights. Then came along arc lamps and how did they run them? Earth batteries. First telegraphs ran off earth batteries. Even the first electroplating used earth batteries, even electric clocks instead of using tumblers were using earth batteries. Amazing how many things were running off earth batteries before electricity was running along poles house to house. Street lights, miners used them for running lights in tunnels, and they were and are still used in remote areas to run sensors for scientific research.
I also think it would be a great learning experience for kids if parents don't have the time to see if it works, have them build some LED lamps and test it out.
I am excited about it and thought I would share. The amazing old tech still works.
You cannot buy them, but you can build them.
When all else fails, use what our ancestors used.
