Solar Electrical Experiments

I finally jumped on the bandwagon 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 ver Anglo solar calm here’s
a close-up of the panel so you can see
just how intricate the silicon wafers
and contact grids really are this panel
converts sunlight into about a hundred
watts of electricity which is about two
and a half times more power than I get
from the hand-crank charger I made in a
previous project not only do the panel’s
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 keep
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 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
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 burst 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 it
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 the
king of random calm hey it’s nice to see
you hey guys this is the first time I’ve
tried playing around a 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 it in the
next few days I get to give away three
of these hundred watt panels to three 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 like this video by giving
it a thumbs up thanks again for watching
to the end and I will see you in the
next part
video bye