Eco-Living: 6 Volt Golf Cart Batteries Are Excellent Power Storage "Training Wheels"

FOREPLAY

Before we get started, I have to begin by saying that in this article I am skipping over a lot of background technical knowledge about electronics and maybe some mechanical stuff, too. Basic electronic theory, how batteries work, and how to hook them up in series (not in parallel!) - all this is stuff you can read up on in the Internet, or learn from a mechanic or geek-buddy. I bypass all this background minutiae merely to keep this story relatively short, and thus a slightly quicker read.

If you like to change the oil in your car or fix your lawn mower (stuff like that), you would most likely understand what I write below.

Basically, I am just giving you a recommendation for a good, cheap way to store electrical energy generated from your chosen alternative power source.

WANNA MESS AROUND?

So you've heard about this "alternative energy thing", and you want to mess around with, try something out. Maybe you don't want to take a big jump at first, and go hog wild like I did by making some biodiesel. If you have fondly vivid memories of electrocuting your lab partner in high school physics class, or you wish to re-create a similar pleasant experience using your own body as a guinea pig, then messing around with electricity generated from alternative energy sources is the way to go.

Whether the energy you choose to harness comes from the sun, flowing water, or a biodiesel generator, all of these forms of energy need to be stored somehow. Storing them as electrical energy is relatively easy to do, and can be loads of fun to mess around with. After all, the energy you generate in your experiments has to be stored somehow.

For now, storing energy in batteries is an easy and expensive technology to use.

GOLF CART BATTERIES: A JOLT WITHOUT THE SWING