Happy Halloween, everybody! It is that time of the year again, when we have stocked up on incredible amounts of pumpkin and facial paint. But, what can we do with all that leftover pumpkin that didn’t make it to a scary lantern? Here is an idea, turn it into a pumpkin battery.
So, before we get on with building the ‘green’ orange energy storage system, let’s have a look at what we need.
There should be pumpkins (preferably 2, but you can use more for more power), galvanized (or zinc-coated) nails or screws, copper materials such as nails, or wires, and you need some extra wires. To make the task a bit easier you might want to get some alligator clips, but these are not extremely essential. Last but not least, you would need a digital multimeter to assess the quality of your job.
Note, if you already have some experience with electricity, or you’re familiar with the basic principles, it would come very handy (and it is recommended that you do).
OK, now let’s build.
Step 1: Place the galvanized screws (or nails) in the pumpkins, making sure you leave enough of the screws sticking out, so that there is space for the wires later.
Step 2: Place the copper material nearby the galvanized screw, but make sure they do not get into contact with each other.
Step 3: Connect one of the galvanized screw of the first pumpkin to the copper material of the other pumpkin using the wires (with the alligator clips, if you have some).
Step 4: Take another wire and connect it to the free material (either the galvanized screw or the copper material). Do the same to the other pumpkin.
Step 5: Connect the loose ends of these wires to the digital multimeter and measure the voltage of your pumpkin power.
Now, if you have really overestimated the enthusiasm for home crafts, and you still have pumpkin left, you can get some other ideas here.
The great tutorial and photos are courtesy of Will_W_76, and the Instructables.
A waste of good food as you can’t eat them afterwards.