I finally jumped on the band-wagon and got a pair of solar panels. So, now that we’ve
got access to free, and virtually unlimited amounts of electricity, let’s hook them
up and experiment, with some of the things they can do.
To start this project, I got a couple of 100-watt solar panels from verengosolar.com. Here’s
a closeup of the panel so you can see just how intricate the silicone wafers, and contact
grids really are. This panel converts sunlight into about 100 watts of electricity, which
is about 2.5 times more power then I get from the hand-crank charger I made in a previous
project. Not only do the panels make far more electricity, they’re a lot less work to
operate. Now I spliced the cables and added red and black alligator clips for convenience,
then tried hooking it up to my hydrogen generator. You might remember this awesome piece of equipment
from another project video, which can turn ordinary tap water, into a powerful,
Oxy-Hydrogen gas. When this fuel is burned, it turns right back into water. So this could
be used as an environmentally friendly fuel, but I mainly just use it for shooting bottle
rockets. Now this solar powered gas production is a little bit slower than if we hooked it
straight to a car battery, but in a way that’s kind of good. Because with lower amperage,
the generator, can seemingly run forever, without overheating. And because we’re using
solar panels to generate the gas, the system is completely off the grid. Electricity is
free, and virtually unlimited … as long as the sun keeps shining. Just for fun let’s
try adding another panel, in parallel, to double up the amperage. Which you can see,
kicks the production up significantly. Now to capture the gas, all we need to do, is
unscrew the cap of a full water bottle, and dip it upside down in another bowl of water.
The bottle stays full, as long as it doesn’t get pulled out, and if we bubble the gas up
from the bottom, it’ll eventually force all the water out, and leave the bottle completely
full, of hydrogen and oxygen gas. Now to test the power of hydroxy gas, let’s touch a
flame to the mouth of the bottle and see what happens. Incredible power. Alright, let’s
disconnect the hydrogen generator and see what we can try next. I stopped by a local
hardware store and picked up this 500 watt power inverter for only $33.00. So why don’t
we try hooking it directly to one of the panels. You can see the inverter has a USB port built
right into it, which means we’ve got the ability to charge any USB powered device,
including our smartphones. One panel is enough to charge a car battery as well. So if there’s
ever an emergency, all we need to do is hook the inverter to the battery, and now we can
do all kinds of neat things. Like power a small radio to listen for emergency broadcasts.
This will also charge batteries for electronics, and power tools, so we can still build, just
about anything we need. For this next experiment, I found an old piece of steel wire from the
back of a picture frame, and if we try connecting the leads to a piece of that, you can see
that in an instant, the wire gets so hot it melts. Now if we’ve got that kind of power,
let’s take it one step further by touching the electrified wire, to a pile of leaves.
Not surprisingly, it starts smoking, and bursts into flames in just a matter of seconds. Well,
it’s always good to know different ways, of getting a fire started without matches.
Especially if means, you can avoid rubbing sticks together. Now to finish up, let me
show you one interesting thing I noticed during the hydrogen generator experiment. This lead
makes an unusually juicy spark every time I touch the terminal. So for one final experiment,
let’s try drawing the arc out. Impressively, it looks like we can stretch this arc at least
a couple of millimeters, and even hold it for a few seconds. Now this stream of electrified
plasma is dangerously hot. Which you may have figured out already, because of the molten
copper metal that seems to be sparking out everywhere. What really blows my mind is that
all this incredible electrical energy is coming from the sun, absolutely free of charge. Well
now you know how to use solar energy, to make earth-friendly fuels, power household devices,
charge batteries, and even start a fire. So if there ever is a so-called “zombie apocalypse”,
you’ll be one step closer to prospering, as a survivor. Well that’s it for now. If
you liked this project perhaps you’ll like some of my others. Check them out at www.thekingofrandom.com
Hey, it’s nice to see you. Hey guys, this is the first time I’ve tried
playing around with solar power, and to tell you the truth I’m really quite impressed
at how much power there really is. And what’s really cool is that in the next few days I
get to give away 3 of these 100 watt panels to 3 of you. So keep an eye out for my next
contest video where I’m giving those away, and if you get one, hopefully you’ll experience
the same thrill of discovery that I just did. I have many more projects and experiments
coming up, so please subscribe if you haven’t. And let me know if you liked this video by
giving it a thumbs up. Thanks again for watching to the end, and
I will see you in the next project video! Bye.