Homemade Battery for a Lamp

Connect lemons with copper leads to create homemade batteries.

Go green with lemon power and transform citrus fruits into basic batteries. Lemon batteries hold enough power to turn on a light bulb or power an alarm clock. Building homemade batteries involves some basic knowledge of electrical currents and elementary science. The NASA website recommends this project for students in grades four through five. A simple battery requires only one lemon, although many lemons may be linked to create a more powerful battery cell. Making lemon batteries is an excellent method for teaching students about electrical currents.

Things You'll Need

• Lemons
• Lamp or light bulb holder
• Knife
• Hammer
• Copper strip
• Zinc strip
• Copper lead wires
• Penny nails
• 0.2 volt bulb
• Iron (optional)
• Nickel (optional)

Instructions

1. Roll the lemon several times in the palm of your hands to stimulate the citrus juices. Cut a slit approximately two centimeters long in the lemon. Cut an additional two centimeter slit parallel to the first slit.

2. Hammer a small nail hole into one end of the copper and zinc strips. Push the copper strip into one of the slits cut on the top of the lemon. Push the zinc strip into the other slit.

3. Loop copper wire through the hole punched in each of the metal strips. Twist the end to the wire around the body of the wire for each piece. This helps secure the copper wires.

4. Twist the light bulb into the lamp or the light bulb holder. Place one of the copper wires into the terminal on the light bulb holder. Twist the wire to secure it in place.

5. Touch the loose wire to the open terminal on the light bulb holder. This completes the electrical circuit and should power the light bulb.

6. Experiment with ways to increase the electrical power flowing from the lemon through the wires. Use additional copper wires to attach additional lemons to form a multi-lemon powered battery cell. Try switching the zinc and copper strips for nickel or iron to see how this affects the electrical current.

References

• Arizona Energy: Homemade Batteries
• NASA Sci Files: Homemade Batteries
• PBS Kids: Lemon Battery