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 Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 4:43 pm
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:28 pm
A way to exercise and power electronics at the same time?
Awesome.
Do they have a battery for it to hold the energy for later use? Or does it only work while you're cycling?
I hope people will be able to get these soon, at a good price. It'd help the obesity epidemic along with the energy crisis.
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 5:57 pm
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Posted: Sat Aug 14, 2010 7:16 pm
looking into power holding options now. no clue to be honest
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Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 8:53 pm
Fantastic idea...not a great idea as a single source of power though as the average output generated by a similar device is only 140 watts.
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com/PPG-12-200-nc25a-charge-controller.htm#test
the kits are incredibly expensive however if your good with electronics you can easily build one yourself with an old car alternator and an inverter and a car battery.
@ukir: without purchasing a 12 volt inverter or some sort of battery system that has an inverter it will only power things while you are cycling. If you were to use this thing to generate power to use later it would be essentially worthless because you would have to run it to a battery pack system such as this
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TKHMWK?tag=freewaresharew01&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000TKHMWK&adid=13KFY22EX7TQHT6ZESWH&
Which would take approximately 35 hours to charge under optimum conditions (according to owners manual) and would only be able to power a small television and a fan for approximately 2 hours.
I really sound like i'm trying to bring everyone down...But i'm really not i assure you that that is not my intention. Just being realistic.
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Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:13 pm
Teh_plague Fantastic idea...not a great idea as a single source of power though as the average output generated by a similar device is only 140 watts. http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com/PPG-12-200-nc25a-charge-controller.htm#test the kits are incredibly expensive however if your good with electronics you can easily build one yourself with an old car alternator and an inverter and a car battery. @ukir: without purchasing a 12 volt inverter or some sort of battery system that has an inverter it will only power things while you are cycling. If you were to use this thing to generate power to use later it would be essentially worthless because you would have to run it to a battery pack system such as this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TKHMWK?tag=freewaresharew01&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B000TKHMWK&adid=13KFY22EX7TQHT6ZESWH& Which would take approximately 35 hours to charge under optimum conditions (according to owners manual) and would only be able to power a small television and a fan for approximately 2 hours. I really sound like i'm trying to bring everyone down...But i'm really not i assure you that that is not my intention. Just being realistic. that seems off...but hmmm...... well what iof it was multi faseted (in terms of what it took power from) or for smaller things like a labtop or a DS?
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Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 3:20 am
Teh_plague is right. You might try checking out the converters, etc., available to truck drivers and RV owners---still some DIY involved. There's a reason we're still using fossil fuels, for the most part, to generate electricity.
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Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 4:59 pm
sunsetsmile Teh_plague is right. You might try checking out the converters, etc., available to truck drivers and RV owners---still some DIY involved. There's a reason we're still using fossil fuels, for the most part, to generate electricity. well im sure it can power pidly little things or be merged with other things.
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Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2010 6:59 pm
http://www.pedalpowergenerator.com/docs/duracell-power-pack-600.pdf
Page 26 of 61 it lists a few items and how long the powerpack would run the items if it were fully charged.
It could very easily run piddly things like cell phone chargers and perhaps a portable dvd player or small televisions. I've done a ton of research on this because i actually became very interested in building one for myself until i realized i would have to pedal it nearly continuously to make any sort of difference in my electrical bills. i think i figured with the right generator motor and the most efficient batteries and charge controller i could pay HALF of my electric bill by cycling at 30mph for like 18 hours a day. Not to mention the cost of parts would be at least 600-1000 dollars depending on brand and such. Which would require 1-3 years to payback itself in savings if i used it continuously for 1-3 years. That's saying something though considering most people would have trouble maintaining 15-20 mph for 30-45 minutes. If you cycled for 2 hours a day at 20 mph you'd save yourself like 13 cents on your electric bill. Or you'd charge the battery system with enough juice to use the blender to make one smoothie.
Its not a matter of suppressed technology either. Its the simple fact that human beings are not power sources. Electrical generators (be it a windmill, a water turbine, a VAWT, fossil fuel generators) Spin very very large generator motors at very high speeds to generate the electricity we consume. No human being can accomplish that kind of work.
Sorry for ranting on you. Not my intention to be mean i just come off that way i guess. I'm totally for building your own electrical generators though. Big fan of the Vertical axis wind turbines made out of essentially junk. (old 55 gallon barrels and such) they take hardly any wind to generate a decent amount of power and cost less than 300 bucks to build. With a small amount of space taken up in your backyard you could build 4-6 of them in a row and have them wired to some sort of battery backup system that ran through an inverter or a grid tie in and you could save yourself some big big cash that way. But a combo of wind and solar is probably the best way to go. Human powered or pedal powered generators...nice gimmick...little use.
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Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 12:52 pm
You're right. I was going to make one, too, for power outages----what a waste of resources ($$$$) that would be for us (although I love the idea of making the girls pedal to run their computers, such a mean mom, lol). Love what you had to say about the vertical-axis turbines, I've been tinkering with that for a while. My husband thinks I'm nuts----but then, he's a "more power" kind of guy. He'll believe it when he sees it. Thought about a small grouping of short ones, placed upon the camper roof, to charge the system while we drive-----marine propellers could work, too, and they're built for the stress. Just pipe dreams for now, though. Help me figure this one out!
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Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 1:30 pm
I'm glad i did the research before i got all crazy with starting to build one lol. As far as placing small ones on top of a camper to charge a system while driving i'm not sure how i would go about that. I'm also not sure if when mounted horizontally they would catch enough wind to really crank fast enough to charge your batteries.
I'm really thinking about building a couple of these bad boy's myself. But i think my neighbors would be pissed (live in a townhouse)
http://www.instructables.com/id/VAWT-Lenz-type-Stage-1-Converting-wind-power-to-/
Or this one
http://www.instructables.com/id/55-Gallon-Drum-Turbine/
Both are relatively easy and don't require super expensive parts. Find someone tossing out a broken generator on craigslist because usually the engines break first and harvest your generator from it. Batteries with a charge controller and a power inverter would still wind up being the most expensive parts of the system. But on an average day with winds between 5 and 10 mph you could probably power your entire house with a couple of those bad boy's.
I do know that vawts get a bad rap for being dangerous due to the extreme stresses that they under go. The whole airplane wing type design on the wind catching bits creates the low and high pressure which causes the thing to spin like crazy. The first one i linked to would probably satisfy your husbands "more power" needs lol.
Oh and for power outages
http://www.theepicenter.com/tow082099.html
small generator's made out of a lawnmower engine and a car alternator. Probably cranks out enough juice to run your fridge and a couple of lights in an emergency.
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Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 3:39 pm
Don't you just love Instructables! Your second link was the one that really got me thinking about going vertical. I had never really considered it before-----growing up in Oklahoma, I saw lots of working windmills still used to pump water. All horizontal, of course, mostly Aeromotors. In fact, I have an entire set-up for that, except the tower, that my uncle gave me. Hope we never need it, but..... Anyway, yeah, that's where the idea for a series of those across the top of the camper came from. Since we'd be driving at least 55mph, I was most concerned about the turbines going airborn, and doing damage to someone behind us. They could be fairly small, since they would be in a series just mounted across the leading edge----and since the camper already has an inverter and batteries, that part is covered.
There is a lawnmower repair shop nearby here. Don't know why I never really thought about talking him out of some parts before. I have several windy acres to play with out here, and my husband can bring home plastic barrels gratis from work. Got busy with real life and let this project slide. There are 2 barrels out there now, but the goats would cry big tears if I took them away. Thanks for a boot in the behind! I'll have to get back to this! biggrin
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Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:18 pm
if it can power light labtop and/or rechargeable battries imhappy
i do lots o bikeing, so it would pay off for me
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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:16 pm
@sunsetsmile: Yes i do indeed love instructables lol. One of my favorite sites out there. I really love the alternative power systems its just that i rent currently so i'm unable to start building them for myself. Someday i'll own a couple dozen acres for myself and then i'll have plenty of homebrewed wind generators lol. It would be quite fantastic if i owned enough land to grow all of my own vegetables and meat and grain each year with perhaps enough leftover to make a small business of it or to host a few really good parties a year lol. Of course all my electricity would be provided by junk material VAWT's and a few solar panels. Perhaps propane for my gas stove though. I despise cooking on an electric stove. Unfortunately my dream would be expensive. Steel frame house, cement board siding, steel roof, (house should last a hundred years with no upkeep right there and plenty of recycled materials in the steel) I'm just a dreamer unfortunately an acre around here costs around 90k with no house on it even. 2-3 hours northwest and i can get 100 acres for 100k. Go figure.
@Hoshioni: Like i said it can handle very light stuff for a decent amount of time. But you'd still have to invest in the generator motor, a charge controller, at least a few 12 volt batteries, and an inverter. 35 hours of pedalling to get approx 7 hours of laptop usage. I have no doubt you do a lot of biking i do to when i get the time but i dont have 35 hours a week to charge a battery system for an hour of usage daily. Seriously 1000's of dollars worth of equipment to make a miniscule amount of electricity...the average laptop consumes 20 watts of electricity. You'd have to cycle for like 5 hours a day for one hour a day of laptop usage. Mind you this is not a mobile system. It is fully stationary because the batteries the charge controller and inverter would weigh roughly 250 pounds.
edited to add: I'm just trying to help you see that you'd be spending a fairly ridiculous amount of money to do almost nothing...it would save you literally...pennies a month. And as far as environmental concerns over fossil fuel usage. You'd be expelling as much co2 over that 5 hour period of cycling as the burning fossil fuels would to create the same amount of power. Like i said in one of my earlier posts. It's a fantastic idea it just doesn't really work out to be worth the equipment costs, building time, and the amount of time it takes to generate the electricity.
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Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2010 7:31 am
that link reminded me of this: http://bikehugger.com/2010/08/old-timey-bicycle-machines.html smile
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