Solar Battery Charger. Free electricity!

Anyone who knows me well knows I'm really into solar energy right now. It's free and even if your power goes out, the sun doesn't, as long as it is daytime you still have power. Love it. Before my first child was born my husband and I knew we needed to invest in rechargeable batteries. We noticed all the infant toys that vibrate or sing songs and such, like the swing, the vibrating bouncer, the dolly that sings songs, the mobile in the crib, etc. And THAT'S just for an infant! Once they get older they have so many toys that require batteries (AHEM, Geo Tracks). We would be spending a fortune on batteries had we not got a battery charger (that plugs into the wall) and rechargeable batteries. Now powering all those toys has gotten a little cheaper for me. Last month I used my birthday money to buy a solar battery charger for $20. Not bad, right? It pays off in the end anyway, then it's all free energy from there on out. I just bought this little guy from Amazon:

Today I FINALLY had enough batteries to charge in this thing and try it out. In order to use it you have to have 4 batteries (not 2, not 3, not 5, but 4) for the circuits to be able to charge them up. I kept ending up with 3 batteries of all sizes. But today I finally made it to 4 "D" batteries and tried it out. I first tested my batteries out to make sure they were dead.

Sorry this picture is sideways. I don't know how to change it now, but notice the red indicator is at 0 DC. So yeah, my batteries were definitely dead. So I stuck all four of my "D" batteries in the charger and left them out in the sun for about 6 hours.

When I took them out I measured their power again:

I'm not sure how to read that but I checked a few brand new Alkaline batteries to compare and they all went to that same line, so I am assuming it is charged up completely. Free energy to power my kids' toys. Love it. It's a nice small device too. No bigger than my foot.

I'm pretty excited about my battery charger and now any battery operated object is free to run. If I can't power my whole house with solar energy (maybe someday) at least I can power my battery powered items. :) Just a note on the charger, it charges "AAA", "AA", "C", and "D" size batteries. The smaller the battery, the quicker they charge. AAA should take 1-1.5 hours, AA 3-3.5 hrs, C 6-7 hrs, and D 9-11 hrs (though mine didn't take that long).