Pro tip: My cousin's free energy device burned down his garden shed

My cousin Jim spent two years building what he called a 'zero-point energy collector' in his backyard. He swore it would power his whole house and even let him sell extra electricity back to the grid. I told him it sounded dangerous with all those exposed coils and homemade capacitors, but he laughed it off. Last September, the thing caught fire at 3 AM and took his shed with it. Fire marshal said the wiring was completely wrong and the magnetic field setup was never going to produce energy anyway. Cost him $4,000 in damages and a lot of explaining to his homeowners insurance. Has anyone else seen these backyard energy projects go wrong or is my cousin just special?

3 comments

3 Comments

brianreed18d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, this brings back memories. My neighbor Tom tried to build a perpetual motion machine out of old washing machine parts and a lawnmower engine. It threw a spark that set his workbench on fire and the smoke detector woke up the whole block at 2 in the morning. His wife made him scrap the whole thing and he still gets teased about it at block parties.

cooper.drew19d ago

My neighbor tried that magnetic motor thing too, but he had it sitting on a metal workbench next to a full gas can for his lawnmower. The whole bench started vibrating so bad it walked across the garage floor and tipped the can over. Lucky nobody was home when it happened, the smell was awful for weeks. He still tells people his garage "has a special energy field" now though.

amy_west19d ago

My buddy Mike tried building a "magnetic motor" in his garage last winter and it shorted out his entire house electrical panel including the fridge. The breaker box had arcs shooting out of it for like ten seconds before the main shutoff finally tripped. He spent $1,200 on an electrician to rewire half the basement plus replace all his spoiled food.