Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Although wind and solar energy are growing in popularity, storing ...

Three years ago, Ted Treadwell turned his water heater into a battery. His home in Santa Rosa, California, had relied on a gas-powered furnace and water heater for a quarter-century to stay warm. But ...

Volta’s pile — the first battery — was little more than silver and zinc discs separated by paper soaked in salt water. A classic classroom experiment is to build a pile from copper pennies, tin foil, ...

Old American radios (and we mean really old ones) took several kinds of batteries. The A battery powered the filaments (generally 1.5V at a high current draw). The B battery powered the plate (much ...