Does anyone know how I can make a small motion powered electricgenerator ?

[katrina]

Hi all, I want to hook up a motion powered generator to my stationary
bike that will supply electricity to my television ? How would I go
about this ? thanks.. [email protected]

 

[Sjouke Burry]

Hi all, I want to hook up a motion powered generator to my stationary
bike that will supply electricity to my television ? How would I go
about this ? thanks.. [email protected]

Put the power plug in your mouth and start pedaling...

 

[ehsjr]

Hi all, I want to hook up a motion powered generator to my stationary
bike that will supply electricity to my television ? How would I go
about this ? thanks.. [email protected]

Most televisions require more power than most people can
generate on a bicycle for more than a few minutes. You're
not the first - and you won't be the last - to think of the
idea, but the reality is that it is not really practical.

Ed

 

[Bob Monsen]

Most televisions require more power than most people can
generate on a bicycle for more than a few minutes. You're
not the first - and you won't be the last - to think of the
idea, but the reality is that it is not really practical.

Ed

There was a guy who, during the Berkeley student protests in the 60s, came
up with a great idea, which was a stationary bicycle that would generate the
power for an audio system. Thus, in order to talk on the thing, you would
need to convince somebody else to peddle for you, thereby eliminating the
truly odd (of which there is an ample supply in Berkeley).

I bet that most people could easily put out 50 watts. I hear Lance Armstrong
could reliably put out 500W for long periods of time during his heyday.
Seems like you could find a TV receiver that would work with 50W.

Regards,
Bob Monsen

 

[bw]

There was a guy who, during the Berkeley student protests in the 60s, came
up with a great idea, which was a stationary bicycle that would generate
the power for an audio system. Thus, in order to talk on the thing, you
would need to convince somebody else to peddle for you, thereby
eliminating the truly odd (of which there is an ample supply in Berkeley).

I bet that most people could easily put out 50 watts. I hear Lance
Armstrong could reliably put out 500W for long periods of time during his
heyday. Seems like you could find a TV receiver that would work with 50W.

Regards,
Bob Monsen

Average basal metabolism is about 100 watts. Skeletal muscles are about 33
percent efficient.
To generate 100 watts of work, you need to generate 200 watts of heat on top
of the basal, for a total of 400 watts. This is about the limit for an adult
male in good condition for 8 hours.

For Armstrong to generate 500 watts of work, he expends 1000 watts of waste
heat for a total of 1600 watts.
He might be right, but I'd say he was not a typical adult male.

 

[bw]

Hi all, I want to hook up a motion powered generator to my stationary
bike that will supply electricity to my television ? How would I go
about this ? thanks.. [email protected]

Type bicycle generator into Google. Thousands of hits.

Also, check back issues of Home Power magazine.
The author used a treadmill motor on a stationary exercise bike, he was
barely able to keep his portable TV running for 30 minutes at a time.

 

[Tim Woodall]

Average basal metabolism is about 100 watts. Skeletal muscles are about 33
percent efficient.
To generate 100 watts of work, you need to generate 200 watts of heat on top
of the basal, for a total of 400 watts. This is about the limit for an adult
male in good condition for 8 hours.

For Armstrong to generate 500 watts of work, he expends 1000 watts of waste
heat for a total of 1600 watts.
He might be right, but I'd say he was not a typical adult male.

A typical goal of an interested amateur is to do "evens" (30mins) for a
ten mile time trial.

This works out at about 150 watts.

Slightly more keen cyclists aim to do a 25 mile time trial in an hour
(the British record for 90+ year olds currently stands at fractionally
under the hour)

This works out at about 250W

Cat1 riders can average 30mph+ over these distances - about 450W

Cancellara rode the prolog of the London TdF in 8m50s for an average
speed of over 33mph - about 570W.

The hour record in the mid 80s was around 32mph - about 520W. It's since
gone a lot higher but the riding stance has changed.

http://www.mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/ProdDiss/Bicycle/bikecalc1.htm

http://www.cadencecycling.com/training/services/nyc/physiological/

A professional cyclist with strong sprinting skills can kick out over
1700 Watts!
(that's an instantaneous measure but if you've ever seen how many straps
they need to keep their feet attached to the pedals (they pull up as
well as push down) then this perhaps isn't so surprising)

However, it should be noted that cyclists absolutely depend on the
20mph+ air stream to keep them cool. Early tests on stationary bicycles
to attempt to measure top cyclists performances were getting obviously
completely ridiculous (very low) results. It took a while before people
realized that the cyclists were overheating. I'm a commuting cyclist in
London and mid November and I'm still riding in just a light tee-shirt
(I am now wearing long fingered gloves).

So any attempt to generate power from a person on a bicycle should
factor in the energy necessary to move enough air over the cyclist to
keep them cool.

Tim.

 

[[email protected]]

Hi all,  I want to hook up a motion powered generator to my stationary
bike that will supply electricity to my television ?  How would I go
about this ?  thanks.. [email protected]

Your idea is very good but the big question is "who will watch the t.v
as you ride the bike"

 

[default]

Hi all, I want to hook up a motion powered generator to my stationary
bike that will supply electricity to my television ? How would I go
about this ? thanks.. [email protected]

Like bw said lots of information on the web already. Its been done
already.

I disagree with the idea that a person can't reliably generate enough
power since that is pretty much up to the load. Some of these new
portable DVD players with solid state displays are very efficient.
The display is the part that eats most of the power in an ordinary
modern CRT television and that's on the order of ~100 watts.

Compact fluorescent lamps can put out the light equivalent of a small
TV with just 10-20 watts and that should be no problem pedaling
providing the energy management system is efficient.

 

[Rich Grise]

Average basal metabolism is about 100 watts. Skeletal muscles are about 33
percent efficient.
To generate 100 watts of work, you need to generate 200 watts of heat on
top of the basal, for a total of 400 watts. This is about the limit for an
adult male in good condition for 8 hours.

For Armstrong to generate 500 watts of work, he expends 1000 watts of
waste heat for a total of 1600 watts.
He might be right, but I'd say he was not a typical adult male.

Who drove the Gossamer Albatross? And does anybody know how many HP it
took?

Thanks,
Rich

 

[bw]

This works out at about 250W

Cat1 riders can average 30mph+ over these distances - about 450W

Cancellara rode the prolog of the London TdF in 8m50s for an average
speed of over 33mph - about 570W.

The hour record in the mid 80s was around 32mph - about 520W. It's since
gone a lot higher but the riding stance has changed.

http://www.mne.psu.edu/lamancusa/ProdDiss/Bicycle/bikecalc1.htm

http://www.cadencecycling.com/training/services/nyc/physiological/

A professional cyclist with strong sprinting skills can kick out over
1700 Watts!
(that's an instantaneous measure but if you've ever seen how many straps
they need to keep their feet attached to the pedals (they pull up as
well as push down) then this perhaps isn't so surprising)

However, it should be noted that cyclists absolutely depend on the
20mph+ air stream to keep them cool. Early tests on stationary bicycles
to attempt to measure top cyclists performances were getting obviously
completely ridiculous (very low) results. It took a while before people
realized that the cyclists were overheating. I'm a commuting cyclist in
London and mid November and I'm still riding in just a light tee-shirt
(I am now wearing long fingered gloves).

So any attempt to generate power from a person on a bicycle should
factor in the energy necessary to move enough air over the cyclist to
keep them cool.

Tim.

nice links. I did not know the professional cyclists had reached that level.
The man-powered flights used professional cyclists. I recall now that they
designed for at least 325 watts for 3 hours.
My info was derived from dietary requirements of laborers working 8 hours
per day. Mountain climbers are also aware of their work limits in this, they
expect caloric increases of 6 to 8 times baseline.

 

[Rich Grise]

Yep...here ya go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_Albatross

Aww, that's no fun! ;-)

Thanks!
Rich

 

[Lord Garth]

Aww, that's no fun! ;-)

Thanks!
Rich

Like fishing in a barrel!