Personal Electricity

Zeus · Post by **Zeus** » 16 Sep 2007, 15:05

Hi all,

I an idea just occurred to me, what's one of the the most abundant sources of "free" energy in the world? The answer: People power

Now I wonder if anyone has thought of using people for electrical power generation, lol, no I don't mean burning them, I mean using things like exercise bikes, treadmills etc at the gym. Sure there won't be enough to plug in to the grid, or will there, but could that power not be used to run your portable CD player while exercising, or recharge your mobile phone battery or other rechargeable batteries?

Individually it's not a lot but collectively, especially given the amount of people who have mobile phones for instance, it'd be quite a saving on grid power and another reason to keep fit.

A bit more far fetched, what about using clockwork devices to generate electricity, using xx people, or horses/ponies to coil the spring. In a similar fashion to how they used to drive flour mills?

Hey, don't shoot, it's just an idea. lol

What do you think though?

Cheers,

Post by **adam2** » 16 Sep 2007, 15:46

Whilst human muscle power can be used to generate electricity, most people have a rather optimistic idea of the amount that can be produced.

A typical person powering a generator via an exercise cycle or a treadmill can only produce about 100 watts (a really fit ahlete or racing cyclist could produce far more, but not mr. average)

At current prices the energy produced by a person is only worth about one penny an hour.
The value of the additional food consumed would be virtually certain to exceed a penny an hour.

In general therefore the idea is not worth pursuing, however there are of course exceptions.
For example a half hours "cycling" could produce enough energy to lite a couple of small LED lights all evening, in the absence of alternative energy sources that could be useful (though a pv module might produce more power for a capital cost no greater than the human powered generator)
In isolated premises reliant on small wind or PV instalations, a stationery cycle/generator could be a suplement in case of lack of wind or sun.

I am aware of one case in Ghana where a pedal powered generator was used to charge cordless tool batteries, during the erection of a large timber framed building.

Horses or other animals could be made to walk in circles, or on a treadmill to generate power, but for general use the amount of extra food consumed by the animals would probably be out of proportion to the power produced.

I once saw a large dog running in a wheel to generate electrcity, the output was only 15 watts, and it was considred cruel to the dog.

Slightly OT, but during WW2 we supplied pedal powered generators to the French resistance, to be used for charging radio batteries. I believe that some of these machines were used after the war to charge batteries if mains power was not available.

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 16 Sep 2007, 17:07

In the movie Solyent Green they pedal a stationary bike to charge their batteries.
I agree with the calorie consumption not being worth the energy produced but most of us could shed a few pounds anyway...

hardworkinghippy · Post by **hardworkinghippy** » 16 Sep 2007, 17:48

...yes but just think, you could eat as much as you wanted while you were doing the washing !

Cream cakes, chocolate, cr?pes, g?teux, wine, confit de canard, beer, more beer...

21st_century_caveman · Post by **21st_century_caveman** » 16 Sep 2007, 17:51

Whilst at climate camp i had a go on the Rinky-Dink pedal powered sound system, it was really hard work to keep the loud drum & bass pumping out especially when a lot of bass was present, but there were only 2 of us pedalling.
I agree that its not going to be useful for feeding into the grid but in an energy scarce future pedal or human power in general might be very welcome, especially for enertainment uses such as PA system and cinemas.
If (when) PV pannels become hard to get then people will start constucting pedal power systems out of scrap and using them for battery charging and on demand applications.
This will of course mean that people will have to cooperate with each other so that people take turns at doing the powering and get fed properly, for example instead of paying to watch a film you would bring some surplus food with you to burn in the human power plant (er, its starting to sound like the matrix

).

Kieran · Post by **Kieran** » 16 Sep 2007, 18:04

I bought an exercise bike only a few weeks ago. Most bikes (and treadmills) these days need to be plugged into the mains to work - especially the pricier stuff. Needless to say these won't be much use post Peak

Mine is purely people powered and judging from the calorie meter built in you'd have to put an awful lot of work in to power anything. Who knows, maybe in the Mad Max style future powerful warlords will have numerous slaves peddling furiously to power their hi-fi's etc

Post by **mikepepler** » 16 Sep 2007, 21:26

Haggis wrote:In the movie Solyent Green they pedal a stationary bike to charge their batteries.

They also recycled the dead into food!

Cabrone · Post by **Cabrone** » 17 Sep 2007, 16:05

If you are interested in making your own power up exercise bike, here's a link for you.

http://www.los-gatos.ca.us/davidbu/pedgen/plans.html

Happy peddling.

skeptik · Post by **skeptik** » 17 Sep 2007, 17:12

Haggis wrote: I agree with the calorie consumption not being worth the energy produced but most of us could shed a few pounds anyway...

Er...yes. By the way, does anybody know if it's possible to die of an overdose of melon and jamon serrano?

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 17 Sep 2007, 21:43

There really is a gym in HongKong where they've put dynamos in the excercise bikes and use them for keeping the lights on!

Skeptic I have just applied for an EU grant to get together with some French and Italian colleagues to carry out research into that very topic. The budget items are one month's luxury travel round Europe and tables at the best restaurants/farm shops. Will let you know the results...

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 17 Sep 2007, 21:48

skeptik wrote:
Haggis wrote: I agree with the calorie consumption not being worth the energy produced but most of us could shed a few pounds anyway...
Er...yes. By the way, does anybody know if it's possible to die of an overdose of melon and jamon serrano?

I don't even know what melon and jamon serrano is?
Can you spread it on toast?

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 17 Sep 2007, 21:49

mikepepler wrote:
Haggis wrote:In the movie Solyent Green they pedal a stationary bike to charge their batteries.
They also recycled the dead into food!

I wasn't going to talk about the positive aspects of the film.

skeptik · Post by **skeptik** » 18 Sep 2007, 08:26

Haggis wrote:
I don't even know what melon and jamon serrano is?

at the bottom of this recent snap uploaded specially for your delectation.

A favourite starter course. The 'Piel de Sapo' variety of melon seems to work best with dry cured hams - Parma, Serrano, Auverne, Westphalia etc.

pixelwitch · Post by **pixelwitch** » 18 Sep 2007, 10:05

Well, I've wondered before whether this might be useful one day...

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/produc ... generator/

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 18 Sep 2007, 11:21

Hi Pixelwitch and welcome to Powerswitch!