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Charge Your Phone With a Candle!

by person555 on December 4, 2014

Table of Contents
Charge Your Phone With a Candle! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Intro: Charge Your Phone With a Candle! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Step 1:

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Step 2:

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Step 3:

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Step 4:

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Step 5:

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Step 6:

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Step 7:

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Charge-Your-Phone-With-a-Candle/

Intro: Charge Your Phone With a Candle!

In this instructable I will show you how to make a device that will charge your phone and give off a soothing light with a candle. If you like this instructable then please be
sure to vote for me in the make energy contest

Step 1:
To make this, here's what you will need:
2 empty cat food cans( these can be the bottoms of any can)
Heat resistant epoxy or glue: http://www.amazon.com/J-B-Weld-8297-HighHeat-Degr...
Solder: http://www.amazon.com/Alpha-AT-31604-60-40-Solder...
USB 2.0 plug (scavenged from old charger): http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Micro-USB12v Peltier thermoelectric cooler: http://www.amazon.com/Tec1-12705-Thermoelectric-Co...
A strip board: http://www.amazon.com/Prototype-Universal-Stripbo...
A small tea candle (can buy almost anywhere)
-Components
5v regulator: http://www.amazon.com/L7805CV-Positive-voltage-reg...
2x 10 nanofarad ceramic disk capacitor: http://www.amazon.com/Radial-Monolithic-Multilaye...
100 ultrafarad electrolytic capacitor: http://www.amazon.com/100uF-Radial-Aluminum-Elect...
A diode: http://www.amazon.com/Install-Bay-Diodes-Pack--D3...
-tools
Multimeter: http://www.amazon.com/DIGITAL-MULTIMETER-MULTITES...
Soldering iron: http://www.amazon.com/Meter-Watts-High-performan...
Pliers : http://www.amazon.com/CablesToGo-38002-4-5in-Long...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charge-Your-Phone-With-a-Candle/

Step 2:
To start you Will take the cans and cut the lips off the top, so they can fit on top of each other. Then I cut three slits equally spaced apart. I also you Will need to poke
some holes in the sides to allow air flow.

Step 3:
I tested mine out and found that I needed more holes so hooked some in the top. Before you continue be sure light the candle to see if it goes out. If it does then you will
need to poke more holes. This step is all about trial and error.

Step 4:
In this step we will build the circuit. Just follow the scamatic and you should be fine. Other wise, I added the pictures of me building the circuit. Use them for reference
when building it.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charge-Your-Phone-With-a-Candle/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charge-Your-Phone-With-a-Candle/

Step 5:
next I took my heat resistant epoxy and glued the cooler to the top can. I recommend placing something on top to prevent it from falling off as it sets over night.

Step 6:
this step is pretty simple, I trimmed down the circuit board.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charge-Your-Phone-With-a-Candle/

Step 7:
To finish is simple, light the candle, cross your fingers, and hope for the best. If it didn't start charging right away then give it a moment becuase it takes time to heat up.
Thanks for viewing, and don't forget to vote.

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Comments
28 comments Add Comment

br0x says:

Mar 17, 2015. 6:46 AM REPLY

uF does not mean "ultrafarad". The first letter is actually greek letter "mu", which stands for micro-

J2SARET says:
Hey you could go solar with this rig and a lens

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charge-Your-Phone-With-a-Candle/

Mar 17, 2015. 6:45 AM REPLY

rkrishnan7 says:

Mar 17, 2015. 6:44 AM REPLY

Gret 'ible! I like the neat fabrication. I have just one question - Thermoelectrics are well known for outrageous inefficiency and I came curious if you ever
measured how many candles and how long it would take to charge a typical phone battery?
If you can make a compact, light folding version that can be carried in a backpack it may be a handy on a camping trip if only to inject sufficient charge to
push out an emergency call. But then, a hand cranked generator (or even better a spare battery) might be more compact and lighter.
The thermodynamic laws of nature put up a fight, don't they! :)
That said, it would still be very useful to experiment with the design just to see how far you can push up the efficiency.

Johenix says:

Mar 14, 2015. 5:20 PM REPLY

Epoxy a third cat food can on top of the Peltier Siebek Device to be filled with water to cool the junction and make the device more efficient.

JohnC20 says:

Mar 14, 2015. 8:28 PM REPLY

A standard CPU heatsink will do the trick too.

GeorgeS4 says:

Mar 17, 2015. 6:41 AM REPLY

off of an old PC ? might work

mostrokol says:

Mar 17, 2015. 6:03 AM REPLY

Or some ice cubes even. :)'

Liam.great98 says:

Mar 17, 2015. 6:19 AM REPLY

How would one go about adding more peltier plates with more candles? Ccould you simply attach them in parallel?

Olek410 says:

Mar 13, 2015. 3:56 PM REPLY

Do you know what would be a great idea is that if NASA used this concept. Because the heat from the rocket engines goes to waste but what if they could be
used to charge the batteries used to power the craft. There is a downside to this; you would need a industrial version of this and it would initially be a bit
heavy. Hey one question what is the rate of heat per second to watts per second produced. Because this could revolutionize renewable power as we know it.

anv says:

Mar 17, 2015. 5:18 AM REPLY

Be sure of the NASA people knows this effect very well. It is uses in many space ships and robots. BUT, remember that the rocket engines wastes it's
fuel after a few minutes of work. And in this minutes, the energy is not a problem. The energy is a problem after months in the space, specially when the
ship goes far from the sun and the solar panels can't generate enough energy.

Olek410 says:

Mar 13, 2015. 4:02 PM REPLY

Just saying if you will want to present this idea or use this idea you will need to give me credit for the idea.

lgotje says:

Mar 17, 2015. 4:56 AM REPLY

How fast does it charge? How much A does it give?

rodski says:
Good idea,but is this right?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charge-Your-Phone-With-a-Candle/

Mar 13, 2015. 4:41 PM REPLY

selimsms says:

Mar 17, 2015. 4:39 AM REPLY

I made a circuit like this, it will work, this can use every regulator circuit, you can use different sensonrs.

eugen.wilhelm.102 says:

Mar 17, 2015. 4:30 AM REPLY

WOW! Great Idea!

Have you measured the power? How much mA you get out of it?

polabb says:

Mar 16, 2015. 5:45 AM REPLY

This is a good concept. Make sure you update the electrical diagram to match your Thermoelectric(Peltier--Seebeck) Device and voltage regulator, then the
capacitor polarity with the USB connector or connector of your choice.
Adding a heat sink or a third box on the cool side of the Thermoelectric(Peltier--Seebeck) Device will improve efficiency.

Babybg says:

Mar 15, 2015. 1:24 PM REPLY

That's awesome

lowpro says:

Mar 14, 2015. 3:53 PM REPLY

Cool! Could use a better schematic/wiring diagram.

Skwurlito says:

Mar 14, 2015. 11:55 AM REPLY

That's amazing

p mishra says:

Mar 14, 2015. 5:34 AM REPLY

wow brilliant !

WYN soldier says:

Mar 13, 2015. 8:10 PM REPLY

Just like kipkay

oldbarnes says:

Mar 13, 2015. 7:59 PM REPLY

i figured out the piece, its the diode. Where is that connected at? I dont see it in your schematic.

oldbarnes says:

Mar 13, 2015. 7:51 PM REPLY

In Step 4: can you add a picture of the backside of your breadboard. I understand all of the pictures but the last three. the third picture from end looks to have
something else in it that I cannot figure out.

WYN soldier says:

Mar 13, 2015. 4:26 PM REPLY

Yeah what voltage does the peltier generates before regulation ?

wannabemadsci says:

Feb 21, 2015. 9:13 PM REPLY

Nice and compact peltier electrical power generator. I like your approach.
Does the heat resistant epoxy hold up well? I was wondering with the epoxy rated 450F and a candle flame about 2,600F it seems like you would need some
type of mechanical fastener/mount to keep the peltier in place.
I second the comment by gravityisweak about adding a heat sink on the cool side to improve performance. I think it would help tremendously.

gravityisweak says:

Feb 13, 2015. 6:49 AM REPLY

If you have a heatsink from an old computer, you should be able to stick it to the top with some thermal paste for an increase in power. In theory it will give
you a bigger differential between the hot/cold sides of your peltier.

Shayon Khaled says:

Seems like the heat to power concept got popular. Everybodys are making projects with them :P

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charge-Your-Phone-With-a-Candle/

Feb 11, 2015. 1:04 AM REPLY

darkken says:
Can you yell me what THE values are without all THE components. So directly on the peltier element?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charge-Your-Phone-With-a-Candle/

Feb 8, 2015. 3:33 AM REPLY