How to Make Batteries From Spare Change

Step 1: See The Video!

What's a penny worth these days?  Not much, but could there be some free energy hidden inside your spare pennies? You'd be surprised! Watch the video to learn how you can put together stacks of pennies to form makeshift batteries that can drive small-current devices like LEDs and calculators.

Comments

[wolfgang64]

I did this with my eleven year old daughter last sunday and let her take it into school on Monday, after one freaked out phone call from the principals office and a lot little explanation (we live very close to Newtown CT) it was a smash hit her science class. Thank you. The only Problem is the science teacher wants to know what other tricks I have up my sleeve. P.S. I did give you full credit.

[The King of Random]

That's an awesome story! I love it, and thanks for the credit :D

Congratulations on your success with it!!

[desmondtheredx]

looks like you know your chemistry

[The King of Random]

I can do a few things but am always interested in learning more.

[enojo.jon]

I would have loved to do this, its just too bad they have gotten rid of the penny in Canada...

[The King of Random]

Yeah bummer. do you have anything else that's copper? It will work the same. Maybe some copper wire?

[Hmff]

how many cells would you need to power a convenrtiona light bulb?

[The King of Random]

You mean like a 100 watt lightbulb? Way too many to be practical in the least.

[indigo401]

anything containing zinc will work which happens to be the main active ingredient in deodorant, So the story goes,
One day after updating my battery banks I put some deodorant on & by chance looked at the label seeing it contained zinc so I gave it a shot & it worked since then I've found hundreds of combinations.

[The King of Random]

Very awesome! Your instructable deserves more views!

[indigo401]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Speed-Stick-Power/

I made my first instructable based on the deodorant penny battery I made

[The King of Random]

You are awesome :) Where did you get the idea for using deodorant? That is such a great idea!

[indigo401]

it is rechargeable i tried with a 4.5 solar cell and upgraded the amount of pennies and deodorant to match the 4.5v of the cell to avoid overcharging either a potentiometer or battery charge controller or even a resistor would work. I have been experimenting with different deodorants, zinc based ointments, among other things as well
evingoz was

[The King of Random]

I love where you're going with this! Where did you get the idea?

I feel like I have a million things going on right now, but I want to try this sometime for myself. I know you went over the basics, but what would you say are the basic step by step? I'm not familiar with vinegar paper.

[indigo401]

This works for sure, if you want to add the cool factor use speed stick deodorant, pennies, vinegar paper, and tin foil. it takes about 10 pennies per led and works for 3 months running on the 1st

(i believe any deodorant with zinc anything will work. The solid white kind works best in a clump on a penny. Nickels work too, 6 per volt

[The King of Random]

Interesting idea! With the suspended zinc particles, do you suppose the battery could be re-chargable?

[TaffGoch]

I'm assuming that the pennies must be copper pennies, which are no longer minted.

If a penny has a date before 1982, it is made of 95% copper. If the date is 1983 or later, it is made of 97.5% zinc and plated with a thin copper coating.

Is the copper-coated penny sufficient, or must the penny be pre-1983 copper?

[The King of Random]

I think any penny will work. These were of the 2.5% copper variety (copper plated only).

[theqwertman]

At 20mA (estimate green LED usage), that means your battery has over 7 Amp-hours! That could charge up a smartphone several times.

[The King of Random]

Really? It's hard to believe. I'll have to give it a try sometime. :)

[Nickson Yap]

This could make a very nice science project for high-school-ers :)

[The King of Random]

I agree! :D

[theqwertman]

At 20mA (estimate green LED usage), that means your battery has over 7 Amp-hours! That could charge up a smartphone several times.

[theqwertman]

At 20mA (estimate green LED usage), that means your battery has over 7 Amp-hours! That could charge up a smartphone several times.

[theqwertman]

At 20mA (estimate green LED usage), that means your battery has over 7 Amp-hours! That could charge up a smartphone several times.

[theqwertman]

At 20mA (estimate green LED usage), that means your battery has over 7 Amp-hours! That could charge up a smartphone several times.

[theqwertman]

At 20mA (estimate green LED usage), that means your battery has over 7 Amp-hours! That could charge up a smartphone several times.

[theqwertman]

At 20mA (estimate green LED usage), that means your battery has over 7 Amp-hours! That could charge up a smartphone several times.

[mikenaly]

Have to ask. You blot the cardboard to remove excess moisture. What is the reason for this, and would submerging the cells in the vinegar short them out, or allow for a greater amount of electrolyte to power the battery?

[The King of Random]

You are right in your thinking. The cells short out if the electrolyte or cardboard pieces touch other cells. The reason for blotting out excess moisture is to prevent the vinegar from dripping down and interfering with other cells. Thanks for asking!

[alzie]

Very cute.
Great learning execize.
I remember doing this as a kid with my dad decades ago.
This and wire on nails electromagnets
got me into engineering for better and worse.

Actually, corrugated cardboard has much less conduction path
due to the air spaces.
This results in higher internal resistance and lower max current than
youd otherwise have.
A much better cardboard would the cereal box variety,
no air spaces.
Any fuzzy porous stuff that can hold a fair amount of electrolyte will work well.

[The King of Random]

Thanks again. You must have had a cool dad. Was he an engineer as well?

[alzie]

Thanx, but no he wasnt. He could / should have been.
He was just a frustrated customer service rep for the local electric co.
We wanted him to quit and go into some thing techie, even at less pay, but
you know the work ethic from 50 yrz ago.
I m eternally grateful for the nurturing that he provided me.

[The King of Random]

Yes, for better or worse as you say, it seems you find a lot of purpose and value in the sciences :)

[alzie]

Right, never a dull moment.
Got enough projects lined up for 3 life times.
Creativity is our savior!

[The King of Random]

If you have suggestions on fun projects I could try, I'm always interested. Especially the ones that have to do with generating, storing and converting power with things around the house :)

[alzie]

Yeah, I m always fascinated with induction, magnets and coils, etc.
You might try messing around with old hard drive head positioners.
Use the older 12V variety, not the 5V only models.
I believe that you can light leds by connecting them to the coil and
wiggling the head arm back and forth
to generate low frequency AC.
Makes a great demonstrator.

Also, stepper motors do a fine job of generating AC.
Use the higher voltage type so that
you dont have to spin em so fast.
I have a 24V stepper from an old printer that
in combination with a voltage doubler ckt for each winding,
then put the resulting DC's in series, gives a few hundred volts!
The capacitor storage of the doublers makes nice sparks.
Ya dont want to touch it!

BTW your vid production quality is excellent.

[The King of Random]

Thanks for the ideas, and for your compliment on my videos. I appreciate that very much :)

[J-Five]

I'm guessing it's because of copper and zinc chemical reaction. Plus that's very ingenious!

[The King of Random]

You'd be right! It's a redox reaction between the dissimilar metals. I'm glad you liked it! :)