From fruit to a portable turbine: How to charge your phone when there’s no power

FROM fruit to a portable turbine, these are the best and most bizarre methods of charging your phone when the power is out.

MODERN life would quickly grind to a halt if the power supplies were suddenly knocked out.

Luckily there are a few clever - and downright batty - methods of charging up your smartphone without needing to plug it into the mains.

There are obvious ways to get some juice in your gizmo, such as using a hand crank or a battery pack.

Others involve hacking a 9v battery or even plugging your smartphone into a piece of fruit.

However, we’d advise you to avoid trying some methods of getting power in your phone, because you could damage your gadget and yourself at the same time.

You could also try making your phone last longer by deleting these apps.

But where’s the fun in that?

Here are some of the wacky and sensible methods of charging up your phone during a power cut.

BUILD A BATTERY FROM FRUIT

This is a dodgy method which could damage your phone, so proceed with caution.

First you need to get a number of pieces of acidic fruit, such as lemons or oranges.

Then get one zinc nail and one copper nail into the fruit, making sure they don’t touch.

Use copper wire to connect the zinc stuck inside one piece of fruit to the copper in another, so they form a circuit.

Then open up the USB end of your charging cord and connect the cables inside to the copper wires.

Theoretically, this should generate enough power to charge your phone — but there’s a major risk you could damage it too.

USE A PORTABLE WINDMILL

One of the easiest ways of generating electricity is to use the power of the wind.

You could make your own windmill and connect it to a generator.

This approach could, theoretically, give you power indefinitely as long as the wind keeps blowing.

If you don’t fancy doing any DIY, you could buy a product called “Portable Wind Turbine” from Vindur which costs about $500.

It contains a battery which can store enough juice to power your phone up to six times.

CRANK IT UP

There are several gadgets which allow you to generate electricity using a hand crank.

Once you’ve cranked it up - which is no mean feat - it will provide enough energy to fully charge a phone.

They can be found online for around $60 for a decent version with some manufacturers making the claim that “one minute of cranking will generate enough power for a 30-second call or a few critical texts”.

Charge your phone and get a workout at the same time.

START A FIRE

We’re not suggesting rubbing two sticks together and cooking your phone here, because that would be a disaster.

Several cooking devices also offer the ability to charge up your phone. They work by harnessing the heat of a fire and using it to generate electricity.

One of the coolest of these devices is the BioLite CampStove, which can be found online for around $200. It burns wood and charges a battery.

Then after you’ve cooked your dinner, you can plug in your iPhone and get enough energy to post an image of the meal on Instagram.

Light a fire under your phone battery.

BUY A BATTERY PACK

Read more: A history of iPhones: How has the iPhone changed over time?

This approach is handy if you know there’s a power cut coming and want to prepare.

There are a number of battery packs on the market which should do the job.

One of the most popular is the Anker PowerCore 20100 which “weighs as little as a can of soup (350 grams) yet charges the iPhone 7 almost seven times, the Galaxy S6 five times or the iPad mini 4 twice” and costs about $75.

Apple also makes an official battery case for its iPhones, which cost about $165.

But remember to keep them charged up because if they run out and the power is down, battery packs are as much use as a chocolate kettle.

This article originally appeared on The Sun.

Incipio's OffGride Battery Case for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge doubles the phone's available battery power.

Originally published as From fruit to a portable turbine: How to charge your phone when there’s no power