Solar CITIES makes our first Joule Thief

After returning from the Khumbu trail in Nepal, where we were installing solar hot water, PV, and wind energy and planning for microhydro and biogas, we noted that there were many garbage dumps in the wilderness areas up toward Everest Base Camp filled with beer and soda cans. The lodges and the trekkers haul the cans up there but almost nothing is hauled back out. Rather than seeing this as a problem we are looking into industrial ecology solutions: Aluminum is an energy intensive material and even more energy was invested in each can by bringing it up the mountain. The solution? Reclaim that energy by using the aluminum cans as batteries to run LEDs and charge other conventional batteries. But given the low voltage/current of aluminum can batteries one has to have a way to step the power up. The answer seems to be the "Joule Thief" circuit that was invented in 1999. We wanted to see how simple it was to build one. It cost about 5 Euro in parts and took only about 20 minutes to make. And it works to use 1.5 volt batteries and even batteries as low as 1 volt to run a 3V super bright white LED. Next step: see what we can do with the aluminum cans!
Video Rating: 5 / 5