A diode load self charges battery

[ibpointless2]

So i was playing around last night with a diode and learning more about how zener diodes work when for jokes i connected one aligator clip to case of the diode and the other to the anode. One of many things happen, first it was able to conduct and drop the batteries voltage down just like a normal load. If that was not crazy enough instead of the voltage going down it seemed to climb back up as it was self charging  . A normal load would decrease the voltage but instead it went back up and still continues to climb when i checked it this morning.

I don't fully understand what is going on and why the case of a diode is able to conduct electricity and better yet why does the load (the diode) make the voltage go up instead of down? Any one got any suggestions?

I even made a video of it that you can watch on youtube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sevXgPXxlHs

It could be nothing but i thought it would be something to note in-case we have a need for it.

[e2matrix]

By putting the clip on the case (insulator) of the diode you are not putting a load across the battery.  If the battery (it appears alkaline) had a load on it recently  it will tend to recover after the load is removed and will go back up in voltage slowly to some extent.  Try this with a NiMH or NiCd battery that has been resting for a day or so.  If you then get a voltage increase you might have something but I don't think you will see an increase. 

[gyulasun]

Sometimes the digital multimeter can fool us by "wandering up" in its digits if its 9V alkaline battery is several month old and voltage goes below 7.5-8V, depending on the meter type but the Low Battery, LB sign is not yet activated...

[CuriousChris]

all batteries will exhibit a small amount of spontaneous recharging. particularly if its been used recently. probably due to internal heat. This is a chemical reaction. The diode has absolutely nothing to do with it. remove the diode and you will get exactly the same result in the same conditions. My guess is just before reading the voltage you shorted out the battery with the zener diode. Thus drawing current thus heating it up internally.

To test it take some old recently flat batteries note their voltages, store them for a period of time and then repeat the voltage test. you will find that some of them the voltage has increased. but the extra power will be very short lived.

Another example is in a torch. run the torch until the lamp dims to about 5% of its original brightness. turn it off and wait a few minutes. turn it back on. for a very brief period the torch will flash brightly. you can repeat this until the battery is finally totally dead. Then get a joule thief cct to get the very last remaining energy out of the battery.

I am sure all of this relies on the chemical composition of the battery so some will work better than others.

Did you know the original eveready battery, the type used to power old phones where so good and never seemed to go flat that eveready took them off the market. I used to be a telephone technician. I was told this by an older technician who was lamenting he had to change the newer batteries all the damn time.

CC

[stevensrd1]

If you really want to try a simple, shall we say free energy experiment look at my forum about it at http://www.overunity.com/index.php?topic=9736.90 Perhaps instead of free energy we should say reusable or recycled energy, well either way free energy sounds neat too.