How To: Get free electricity from a phone jack

illegal but posible !!!!!!!!!

It is not untell u get cot

why?

The power utility powers the phone system so... when the power is out to your house the power is out to the phone company switch as well. Hmmm where does all that power come from? Lot of very expensive batteries that are lovingly maintained by the phone company. So the author is draingin the battery that the 911 service runs on for all intent and purposes. So he 733T HaX0R teh phonz and some one dies when the phone goes dead. The other reason is it is basic theft but that concept is lost on most people these days.

The is something wrong with it, you are abusing infrastructure that is in place to save your life and the lives of others for no real practical benefit to your self. Sure if you live in a cabin with phone service and no power mains then sure, run a a little LED light, but if you are that far down the uni-bomber road you are going to be spending your disability checks on extra tinfoil for your hat. Jason; you might want to google "egocentrism" and see if it applies to you. As for re-purposing its not like your a rooting a device you paid retail for and was crippled by the manufacturer to diversify their revenue stream, you are using a utility (not a product) in a way inconsistent with its design and in a way that has the potential for direct harm to yourself and others. Do you have any concept of how much work goes into maintaining battery banks for phone switches? Do you know that lead acid batteries are inherently damaged by use? Do you know that what you are advocating increases cost for everyone who uses the phone system? You are not only stealing from the shareholders of the utility but every single other person who uses the phones. When you are at a neighbor's house and you see a quarter on their table do you take it? Why not

You know i dont even think this dumb f*k knows what hes saying rhysmo please never...ever!!!!!! Come back your only making your self look dumb and like an uptight POS that has never had a single friend!

He is saying the right stuff u just can't under stand him Steven moon because u are a dumb &$@#% who does not get good grades in science electricity

Ok so this guy gets first prize for the absolute dumbest comment on the whole!!!!!! internet first this would never drain the "batteries" if thats what they used but they don't!!!!!! They have generators and when you plug your phone in it uses power so thats like saying if your powers out and you make a phone call your killing people absolutely ridiculous right? Same goes for the other and second just because your power is out doesnt mean the rest of the worlds is too so why do you have power to the phones when the power is out? Because the phone company still has power or they are using generators to make it you F'ing retard!!! There is absolutely no risk of "using all the phone companies power" so dont come on a tech site trying to sound all smart when u have NO!!!! Clue what your saying

i agree with you 100%. i have no idea where this person got their information. the electricity you get to your land line phone is still running when YOUR power is out is because SMART people came up with this cool new fangled concept of routing power to areas called GRIDS!! each place is divided up into grids and if the power in one area is knocked out they can shut down that section of lines while the others stay online. let me just make this clear first of all i am not claiming i am one of the SMART ones. i am just an average joe. but common sense should tell some one something when you are ranting about power failure and telephone power as a unit. heres the thing...Between your house and the phone company's office there is a dedicated pair of copper wires for your phone. Those wires are almost always buried, so ice storms and hurricanes will not cut them. The phone company supplies the power that your phone needs using your dedicated copper pair. A phone will work as long as it is getting between 6 and 12 volts at about 30 milliamps. In other words, it takes very little power to operate a telephone. the lines for a phone are on a separate grid than your house is. and these batteries you speak of do not exist. you may be thinking of a large capacitor used in many applications to store power so that way if there is a large draw at once it will take from a capacitor and not directly from a generated power source. if a large enough draw is made from a from a generated source it could cause what is known as "full fielding" and either fry or bypass the generators voltage regulator and dump the full capacity of the generator into the circuit. i could go on all day about this. long story short its called Google. and if your feeling like putting your learned information to the test Google a DVOM and test the balls off of any source you want.

Ahh, It would appear that you have never had to deal with a Liberal moron before.. In short they are just looking for something to wine and complain about. They were likely the first to actually try this but are super fake so would condemn anyone else doing it so they can look like a good guy. The kind of people that decided in sports that the winners and losers should get a trophy.. Or condemn guns while on the way to the store to buy one. Basically they like to think they know what is best for everyone else but are too good to follow the rules themselves. :) Have fun! Nothing ruins a good forum better than a bunch of winy little liberals.

the phone companies ALSO use batteries, but you are right mainly they run on generators and then the batteries as a last resort. Though, I believe the way in which the whole system works is that the generator charges the batteries and the phones get provided power by those batteries. Much like how a solar panel works... However the batteries are being charged faster than they are being depleted with the gas generators.

to be fair 9-1-1 actually has their own backup batteries and generators at both the station and wherever the dispatcher is. Secondly MOST phone companies if not ALL are actually powered by a generator, and many use a natural gas generator that is constantly fed from the gas lines. They also use deep cycle batteries that are designed to be depleted and recharged constantly. Short of the generators going out though the batteries would never actually deplete because they get charged by the generators while they are in use (much like your car battery recharges when you are driving which is why you don't run out of electricity on the highway).

So in most case you'd actually not be "crippling" the infrastructure at all. Also, a hack like this could save your life someday...

It is not don't worry

sure

I feel like bribot is the only other one here with a brain!!! There are tons of phones with lights and clocks and moving parts all powered by the phone line so when you do what this vid does all the phone company sees is one of those phones being used

Bribot... how does that fact that you won't get caught change the legality?
By that logic the below is true:
I stole something, but i didn't get caught, must not have been illegal.

moving on:

While you are correct many phones have different features that use different amount of electricity, don't most of them these days have a wall wart?

Furthermore, realistically, how much current could those tiny phone line wires carry before overheating? The wires are smaller than stock auto speakers that are 10watt rms.

That being said, it may be enough to power a cell phone for emergencies.... hmm, if the bells were smart they would sell something that did that and just market it for emergency only. (they could put a meter in there that it dies after a week or two or something)

BillQ1984, you are absolutely right about 120v ac coming through the phone when it rings, being an electrician we all know not to touch wires on a phone if its ringing, maybe what he put together will work as long as their are no phone call coming in, if that happens it will fry the the electronic parts!!!

billy, the only one you are making an ass out of is yourself. What if there is someone on here named "John Smith" and my name was John Smith also, I obviously wouldn't be able to call myself "John Smith" so I might come up with a clever nickname right? I doubt if people make up nicknames for themselves online because they are "cowards" besides, what the hell does that have to do with the argument? It looks like you've been proven wrong and are pissed about it. Maybe next time you post you will think before you throw out some comment trying to make yourself look intelligent. People can usually see right through that stuff.

At best I would say you spent a few months running phone lines in people's basements for the phone company. With what you've posted and argued it's obvious that you are clueless.

Do yourself a favor and avoid further embarrassment. Keep your trap shut, listen, and learn - then talk. You must be pretty young.

that is great for knowledge

By the way, was I the only one who thinks this was narrated by Napoleon Dynamite? :-P

acually some phones do get a bit of power from phone jacks but not enough to save money on electric bill(when ur poer is out corded phones still work so i proved with example)

whoops typo power not poer

I was able to power my mini tv

Is there someplace that explains how to do this, in more 'user friendly' terms? I don't have any idea what you were talking about...as far as the needed parts goes. Great idea though!

How about a component list?
Step by step?

You are describing a "Ring Voltage Amplifier" it is needed when you are too far from the CO or if you have more than 5 phones on one line. The voltage before that RVA is still about 30 volts.

very nice idea,can be used when power goes out

holly...a lot of people don't know anything about phone lines...the guy in the video is right. but has to be an LED cause a load too big will blow the fuses and be the way, there will be no wire melting...here in Canada, you have aroud 52 volts d.c on the line at anytime and 90 volts ac when it rings.the 52 volts d.c are coming from huge batteries in the phones co. central. I work for a tel co. and billyq, you don't know what you're talkin' about

So what if it is DC... your TV, Computer, and BetaMax all run off of DC after the electricity goes through a converter Power Supply... Bypass the power supply and you can run many household devices from batteries... and Billyq, your ignorance of circuitry is funny... Although teh phone line can power a cordless phone, it is wired to be powered by an AC to DC converter... if you lose power you lose your phone, because the phone is not wired to recieve power from the phone lines.

If u put a the corect converter to then yes

I haven't tried it yet but I plan to hook it up to a battery and my cordless phone so that I can use it during a power outage.

great insight....
but im wondering...
WHY ARE YOU TALKING LIKE THAT!!!???

yes

good ideea:)

This is not a fake story. I followed this and got it perfect. Thanks.

#1 Fire hazard--Hello Mcfly ?? #2 Dont try this at home kids #3 Yes they can find you.Its called voltage drop and they have equipment that monitors voltage spikes etc.Back in the day when the phone company owned everything(your phone included) they could tell if you had more than one phone simply by checking the resistance on the line.Thats why there are resistors in phones .Another point on this is that is why many installers daisy chained the runs instead of running a home run to the demarcation or running parallel.When daisy chaining- the voltage drop or resistance is easily calculated telling them just exactly how many phones you were using.Of course this is a repair technicians nightmare because of the crappy concept of not home running the line but I wont go there.This of course was old school but the science still applies.Also if you were to be dumb enough to set up your whole entertainment system etc you will not only damage your equipment when the phone call comes in on a higher voltage and pulsing at that ! (anyone here see Rambo and the Russian interrogation scene with the hand cranked phone cords strapped to his ding a ling ?) but you will fry your precious equipment.This is why the guy only hooks up a simple LED as most people have pointed out here.Kudos to those who happen to notice .Oh yes and there is also a real possibility that your amperage draw will not only cause a fire but also fry a few shunts in the telco equipment upstream which as mentioned by other people who do know will set up an immediate call to the repair techs who will find out through Ohms law who's been naughty or nice.Oh and yes I worked for the phone company as well(Sort of) AT&T Broadband and Com Cast or popularly known as Scam Cast.
Oh and the voltage is quite real for those who doubt it.Go out sometime and play with either cable or telco at a demarcation in the rain and find out real quick how much voltage is there.For those who think this is a great idea and that I along with

you have way to much time on you're hands

Too much time on my hands ? Oh you mean to possibly prevent people from harming themselves or screwing up they're phone service or something along those lines ? As in pointing out the obvious that it isn't a smart idea ? Yep I guess your right .Sorry didn't realize it offended you so..(whatever) I will use shorter sentences next time for people like yourself.Got anything more intelligent to say than (Bang) or was your best technical input on the topic ?

i like dees ppl

But they can't tell from what house

ohh my major Quantom Physics (UMBC) home of the terps

BANG

you should always have a phone that does not require 120v from the electric power supply,that way you will always have a phone in an
emergency!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkGGkoLqzp8

I tried and had not problems! This the video on how to do it, Sorry about the bad music on it, YouTube took out my audio cuz there was some music in the background.. And it is safe, I had it on for 5 hours the other night, :) Comment on my video if you like it..

James

The flux integers will bifurcate if you use this hack. You will then find that any previous advantage is nullified due to the saliency levels often found, but not always, in the now fluctuating resonance of your confusion residuals.

Emadex....
You speak great techobabble.
:)

Just for curiosity's sake... if anyone is interested in hacking the electricity meter, here's a how to video.
just have to unscrew the red screw on second 19 of the video.
take care

cicardia, your link- http://www.revver.com/video/1649208/manual-okupa-desactivar-o-contador-da-luz/

how to submit videos on wonderhowto:
https://www.wonderhowto.com/submit/

Uhh.... have anyone heard of batteries? If power goes out - isn't it what you are suppose to use? Oh, wait... I have a better one... CANDLES! how far can you take that LED flash light connected to the phone jack? few feet? wow... try batteries in your flash light, maybe you'll get more use out of it.

I'll try to leave the legality and possibility of trouble with the phone company out of my comment...this is how the circuit works:

All phone circuits have -48V DC supplied to them from the phone company. When your phone(s) are hung up - what the phone company calls "on hook", there is no current flowing, because the circuit is open at your end. When you pick up the receiver, or go "off hook", a contact closes in your telephone, completing the circuit, and a SMALL DC current flows through the circuit (less than 100 milliamps). This is how the phone company equipment knows you have picked up the phone, and that they should send you a dial tone.

So, the phone company does "know" when you are drawing a current, because that is how the system is designed. Note this is supposed to be a TEMPORARY current draw. The proof of this is simple. Pick up your phone and leave it off hook, without dialing any digits. After about 20 or 30 seconds, you will receive an automatic recording telling you to hang up, and then later a loud tone. These are sent from the phone company because they DO NOT want you to be continuously drawing electricity from their battery system.

Back to the circuit design: a rectifier isn't even required, UNLESS you also want the circuit to function when the phone is ringing (as shown in the video). This is because ringing puts an AC voltage on to the line, usually around 90 V AC. Historical reason for this large voltage was to supply enough power to activate the electromechanical bell inside the telephone.

An interesting design and opportunity to learn, but if you're going to build it, be careful, because if you cause damage you may end up being liable for the repair (and yes, they will know it was you, because it will be YOUR telephone that doesn't work anymore). Can't say I recommend this one.

bro dat is wayyy too long

the ac power is required to ring a real "bell". try to ring one without it and it won't work. it'll ding once. needs the ac to vibrate back and forth.

rofl, nice dude, im thinking the heard is thinning already from electricution deaths trying this rofl. notice you make no mention of, please use safety precautions while doing this, ground yourself, etc. lmfao

Wow! I think all these comment generated enough current to power a full room of tele-marketers and I'm sure it blew a few peoples fuses. ;-)

#$%@ yall

you all are really stupid if you try this you dumb fukers you want to die just lick an electrical socket and let it be over with

im confused.. why would someone die from doing this? is the telephone company going to send a hitman to my house for stealing power?

or even better open up your old tv and touch the big red wire that is running from the screen

!

WOW, this is very interesting, and it cannot be a cellphone because cell phones dont have a phone jack....

I've used the phone line to jump start my car and to recharge the battery. Works great!

yes, just tried it. got my cooker running from my phone line. good times.

also you can power up on a telelphone line using an inverter to change what existing power in the phine line to 110 volts so you can power items that are not too heavy on the electrical load.

laptops, lamps, and so on, if you own your own house, there might be more then one phone line that was used for your home, that extra one that is not in use has that power source also and that is a good one to tap in, viva free power, lmao

Don't teach people this. Its not funny. My brother died that way.

Ur brother died with 120 v 60 wats 10 hrz and about 100 ohms going through him the telephone uses at least 12 v 15 wats 5 hrz and 30 ohms so the the phone won't kill any one unless they held it there for#$&@ hours

yeah... not so much the lines only have 48~56 volts on them. and are current limited to 23mA. Yes even when ringing. T1 and ISDN has more but POTS is just 48V

Or I can use my FLASHLIGHT!!!!

What if ur battery died or ur light burned out and you don't have spare batterys you can't recharg them because u have no electricity to charg it

It works, honest! I use it to run my welding rig.

Detailed knows whats going on!

my butt itches

I will put this argument to rest. at rest, the line has the stated DC voltage constantly there. something from 40-70 VDC. when someone calls your land line, the system sends a ringing pulse int he form of 120VAC, but very low amperage, so there is no risk of the wires "frying". This does not mean that the DC voltage is interrupted at all. You can send two different currents over the same wire. Your electric company does this all the time to send information either from your meter to them(if you have the electronic thing on the meter) or between substations or plants. Now if you simply connected a 48V light bulb, it would stay on steady until someone called you. Then it would either pulse from it's normal brightness to really bright and stop when it stopped ringing, or it will burn out. This is where the guy in the video got the idea for the voltage regulator and bridge rectifier from. It will not allow it to damage anything you connect to your phone jack for power usage as long as it's between the appliance and the actual phone line. No it won't power much as far as appliances go, but it would power a radio, a bunch of led lights(think rope light) or even a small tv if you knew what you were doing. Also, the only risk of melting wires you have is in your home, as the ones the tel company uses are quite robust for what is running through them. Illegal? i doubt it, if they are dumb enough to leave lines connected on your home, which is your property, then it's the equivalent of leaving your wallet on the sidewalk, and expecting it to stay there, and then calling someone who found it a thief. As earlier stated, there are safeguards in place to keep a steady current draw on the line. Not sure if that is to save their battery, or to keep open lines in fact open. either way unless you try it with a simple bulb, you'd never know. just be careful. To each his own I say.

Wonderful cost saving idea for those of us with bills to pay. There are many USB powered devices now. Would nt it be cool if you could convert the phone jacks into USB power points. I only use a cell phone any way I dont need those jacks anymore. But I think LearnElectronics is right that the open circuit will good dead after only a short time. Bummer.

U can u just have to use the right resister.

Good,don't have to run out and get new batteries for my vibrator,and when a call comes in....YAHOOOO,so #$%@ that ENERGIZER BUNNY and HELLO PHONE JACK

WoW! that was very nice, i did that, good one! XD

How stupid! Ever heard of a flash light??

the video stopped at 1:03 min incomplete

I wonder if you could use appliances with this by hooking up a voltage multiplier and a regulator set to 120v in case of a phone call...

Obviously the current draw, as stated many times already, is wayyyy too high, and Im sure a multiplier probably wouldnt work, but its a nice thought exercise anyway :)

Good vid!

U can make It work by setting up a seconded line ( ask parents If u do not no what this means by seconded line) but know one can know about ur seconded line because thy can not call u want it if u want ur stuff to work properly like charging.

This should be called, How to Steal power from the Phone Company

Steal it from the DWP. Its easy and simple. My DWP meter guy told me how to when I first moved in. 12 years ago. Been doing it to this day. No issues.

Nice

I work for the phone company and I am an expert! 48 vdc +- from the phone company...true. The detection of current flow is what is used by the switch to give you dial tone. Any device you install that draws current/DT (off hook condition) and if does not dial another phone and connect is seen as a fault. First you'll get the "nut nut nut nut nut nut nut tone, your phone is off hook moron" then the phone company switch will disable the port. Sorry, no more 48 vdc+-. Hope I kept this simple enough.

Hmmmmm it's all Ac voltage these days The batteries don't last long if the power goes out to the terminal , The power keeps the batteries charged if the voltage reg, go out soon well your phone and internet if the powers on but batteries aren't being charged , Most modern phones don't disconnect both wires anymore do to the fact they are electronic switches ,. And they only can check up to your house if your on fiber , if you still on the copper they can only check your line as far as the processor ,

The standard voltage for the telephone system is 48 volts DC. Ringing voltage is much higher, around 90 volts AC at a low frequency. When you place a load of about 600 ohms on the line, you are "off hook" or connected.

Telephone ringer voltage is 50.5 volts at standing and -50.5 volts at ringing

I have lost my power and my phone had a light on it soooooo he is right it works and I will try it and it is not eligale

Sorry for my poor spelling

The iPad that I am on won't let me watch so can u email it to me at
ffejbbab@yahoo.com. Please send 1 to me

No way aint it about 6 volts coming through ur phine line?