Cool bike generator idea

[Daox]

You rent a free bike to travel. The bike has a generator on it. Once you are done, you plug the bike in and the power you generated gives you credit toward a bus ticket.

Is it practical? Possibly in the right places. Still, it is a very cool idea.

Inhabitat » Hybrid Squared: Ingenious Energy-Generating Bike Rental System

[bikin' Ed]

I'm no electronics genius.....but I don't see it working out too well.

The people that use these heavy bikes probably aren't giong to be putting out much wattage to begin with and since nothing is 100 percent, there will be loss.

The ultra capacitor will be drained to charge a battery, and there will be more loss.

The battery will power the motor, drive --more loss. Will the net gain be worth the cost of a very special bike, ultra capacitor, and all of the other associated hardware? I'm not seeing it.

[RandomFact314]

Sound pretty cool to me, I wish that we could have bicycles that gather electricity when we drive it and at the end of the drive we can hook it up to our house and it goes back to the electrical company and our bill goes down, even if it was only by some change, it would still be awesome.

[Piwoslaw]

I'm with bikin'Ed, nothing is for free. I don't see people putting in extra effort just to ride around. Much more efficient would be to have a nice light bike for riding, and a dedicated generator at home. Pedal when you're watching television, slow down and the TV shuts off. Much simpler, no heavy bikes, ultracaps, large losses in efficiency, etc.

[RandomFact314]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

I'm with bikin'Ed, nothing is for free. I don't see people putting in extra effort just to ride around. Much more efficient would be to have a nice light bike for riding, and a dedicated generator at home. Pedal when you're watching television, slow down and the TV shuts off. Much simpler, no heavy bikes, ultracaps, large losses in efficiency, etc.

So you could actually power a tv with a generator bike? I think that would be awesome. I wish all tvs were like that, then America would be less fat (wanna watch "Survivor"? then I guess your going to be burning off that Twinky And I'm American too so don't think I'm hating or anything

[Piwoslaw]

Originally Posted by RandomFact314

So you could actually power a tv with a generator bike? I think that would be awesome.

Oh, yeah. A human can put out something like 200W and more, but can keep a steady output of around 50W-100W (I hope I got the numbers right). Our old 27" tube used 60W-75W, the new 37" LCD is much more of a hog and needs 170W to be happy. But I saw a 40-something" OLED last week that was supposed to use only 100W. A laptop with a 15"-17" LCD takes up only 15W-40W and can be used as a TV.

A bike generator is one of my planned projects if and when I get a small grid intertie inverter. Ah, the possibilities...

[Christ]

The average, fit, adult rider can produce only 75 watts or 1/10hp when
cycling at a continuous 12mph.

From: Human Powered

The entire human body doesn't generate more than 1.5 HP at peak load, IIRC.

I think this is the basis for PA's moped law, actually. (If it produces more than 1.5HP, has more than 50CC, or goes faster than 25MPH) The first and last are upper limits of human ability.

EDIT: Insert the word "average" between "entire" and "human".

[Frank Lee]

People AVOID exertion out in the world. I see the administrative and overhead costs far exceeding the value of whatever energy might be produced (teensy amount).

However, maybe spas and health clubs could become generators. People PAY to bust their humps there... once they're inside.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

People AVOID exertion out in the world. I see the administrative and overhead costs far exceeding the value of whatever energy might be produced (teensy amount).

However, maybe spas and health clubs could become generators. People PAY to bust their humps there... once they're inside.

This idea, I like. I've tossed it around a few times, as well, but never had any takers. Apparently, I haven't explained it in a way that made it simple to implement, I guess.

All that wasted energy in clubs and spas... we could probably power small cities with it.

[Daox]

I never said it was a workable idea, I just said it was cool.

Christ, someone has done that with a gym.

Grid-Tie Exercise Machines: A Long Overdue Idea | EcoRenovator.org