Rechargeable Batteries / Renewable Portable Light

[J0hnm13]

 

You can buy these bad boys for a mere $1.00 at the cheap brand dollar store, and rip the casing off and you have a solar powered AAA battery charger (And that's just the ones I've opened personally, some might use different kinds of batteries too.) I should also say I have no background with electrician skills at all, so if I can do it so can anyone. You could find these either in stores or stuck in lawns, though wandering zombies might stomp and break 'em if you're not fast.

 

My biggest problem with generators and flashlights and such are the finite uses they offer. I see no reason why I couldn't take a little solder and wiring and string a line of these up to a dead rechargable battery.

 

For balance, you could make it so 1 out of every 10 batteries is rechargeable.

Or just use the light as a carrying light source with a slightly bigger light radius than a candle. Something something for renewable light after the electricity shutoff.

This could add to the electrician skill too, better skills would allow more efficient powering.

 

This would also make much more sense than making your own candles or a big wad of tar and fire on a stick as a legit medieval.

[syfy]

again, we have to remember the year PZ is set in...1993.

 

totally irrelevant if they are easily found and widely available in 2015

[King jjwpenguin]

again, we have to remember the year PZ is set in...1993.

 

totally irrelevant if they are easily found and widely available in 2015

but rechargeable batteries have been around for a while, but not the panels.

[J0hnm13]

I suppose I was a little tired when I made the post, didn't factor in the date. My point still stands though, it'd be nice to have some form of renewable light source other than a fire pit. Torches aren't as easy to make (or safe) as Minecraft makes them out to be, and there are only so many batteries laying around. More circular radius style light would be really nice I think... 

[CaptKaspar]

I suppose I was a little tired when I made the post, didn't factor in the date. My point still stands though, it'd be nice to have some form of renewable light source other than a fire pit. Torches aren't as easy to make (or safe) as Minecraft makes them out to be, and there are only so many batteries laying around. More circular radius style light would be really nice I think... 

 

Probably everybody who has to live without electricity agrees with you

[CaptKaspar]

I haven't looked into any specs recently enough that I can remember the details, but maybe once (if) bicycles are added you can make a bicycle generator.

 

Bicycle generators put out next to no power. You can not run household electronics on them (fridges, etc), but they can definitely handle powering a single light bulb. I have seen this at science museums. Pedal the bike and power the light bulb! Yay! kids love it. I admit I did too.

 

Recharging batteries in game might be a stretch though. It'd take you a long long time to recharge a 12v car battery using a bike genie, but small AA-AAA batteries like the sprites we have in game are feasible to charge I would think. The rechargeable AAA battery on my desk right now has 1.02Wh to it.

[J0hnm13]

A big point I'd like to make is that currently, we don't have any form of portable renewable lights. Candles will run out, lighters will run out, batteries are finite.

Light outside is relatively unnecessary, portable interior lighting is the biggest thing we need from this discussion. 

 

Regarding the bicycle generator CaptKaspar mentioned, any electrician could feasibly build at least a basic generator, nothing fancy, maybe something you crank or have to turn in order to power, and a bicycle generator would fit that description. Now it IS 2015, but for years they've sold for 10 dollars at Walmart crankable flashlights that gets fully charged after a dozen turns, no reason a skilled electrician couldn't make one like that himself, given proper accessibility to materials and supplies. This would expand on the uses of the electrician profession as well.

Beyond this, it would be nice to add more uses for batteries, like basic power tools for more advanced construction, or possibly even remote control a winch to raise or lower a rope to the dreaded floating fortress to prevent NPCs from entering while you're away. 

Just a few ideas.