My brother said I could charge my phone with a potato and a solar panel, and it actually worked for 12 minutes before the whole thing caught fire on my porch.

He swore the potato would act as a stable electrolyte buffer but I think the direct sun just cooked the wires and now my neighbor keeps asking if I'm starting a compost cooker project has anyone else tried using root vegetables as solar charge regulators without burning down their house?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_reed2611h ago

In my experience the potato isn't the problem, it's the voltage mismatch between the solar panel and the potato's natural charge. Your brother probably used a panel putting out way more volts than a spud can handle, so the excess energy turned into heat instead. A sweet potato might work better as a buffer since it has a slightly different chemical makeup, but you'd still want a proper charge controller between everything to keep you safe.

johns1810h ago

Has anyone actually tried measuring the internal resistance of both the potato and the sweet potato side by side? I feel like that's the part @uma_reed26 is dancing around but nobody gets into the weeds on. The resistance difference might explain why one works as a buffer and the other doesn't, especially under load. If the potato has naturally higher resistance, it would bleed more heat off regardless of voltage, which is actually the opposite of what you want in a charging setup. Just a thought from someone who's burned through way too many root vegetables trying to figure this out.