extracting power from plants?

[Koen1]

Thanks a stack, Bill!

So, if they're continuously lighting a LED off it, I'm guessing something like 3V 0.1mA?
That seems to be quite a bit!

I'm still a bit miffed about the difference between putting the nails only in the bark,
like you did in your tests, and putting them through the bark into the wood,
like that patent describes...
wild thought: if possible to use only the bark and not actually any living part of
the tree, perhaps it is even possible to use a simple plank?
Okay that's just crazy.

Off to the forest coming summer, that's for sure!

[Pirate88179]

@ Koen:

I am sure my nails are into the tree itself, if only a little bit.  The bark on this one is very thin.  LEDs vary on what it takes to light them.  With my first earth battery, I was able to light my red one with 1.6 vdc and about 3mA's.  The LED was rated for 1.7 vdc and 15 mA's.  It was pretty bright too.  I think they said they were getting like .7 vdc and they were going to wire in series to boost the volts.  I remember because I was thrilled that my first attempt obtained about twice what these guys got. There is much more experimenting to be done.  A few nails tapped into any decent size tree will not hurt it at all.  Just think of how they tap the trees for maple syrup, they pound huge spigot like things deeply into the trees.  They do not want to damage their trees in any way because this is their business and they depend on them.  They do this year after year with no ill effects.  I am not convinced i need 7 nails to get the same results, probably just 2 or 3 would do the same?

That is a strange idea you have about testing, say, a 2x4 board.....I like it.  Who knows?  Is the energy stored in the wood?  Or, is the tree just the receptacle for earth currents and once removed from the ground....nothing?  Easy to test for.  I think it is the second option but I don't really know.  As I said, we are surrounded by energy...everywhere.  The trick is to figure out how to tap into it.

Bill

[triffid]

I know that carbon and magnesium electrodes in an electrolyte will generate voltages over 1.25 volts.Just the battery action taken into consideration here.

[Pirate88179]

@ triffid:

Actually, using a carbon rod and a magnesium block buried in the ground over 6 feet apart, and dry, no electrolyte, I got over 2.25 vdc.  The carbon was north (+) and the mag. was south (-) on the north south meridian.  This was early on in our earth battery experiments.


Bill

[triffid]

Patent 5794601 is on extracting energy from radio waves.It has circuits that that increase the voltage several hundred times what the input is.I offer those circuits here to increase maybe even get 250-300 volts from one tree.Really.If someone here figures out how to wire trees in series.I hope they post it here.triffid