Linguistic Underpinnings

I need to make a mobile power source and the first thing I thought of was  pedal power. I want something I can both set up for daily usefulness in my home and also take out to various locations. In my search for a good how-to guide in setting up a generator from a bike, I’ve fished through several sites- here are my reviews and links:

SCIENCE SHAREWARE 

David Butcher’s  site offers step by step plans to build a generator that ends up costing you about !!$725!! to make a car battery charger that works from a (stationary or regular) bike.  A smaller project to build a DC 150W Pedal Power generator costs $502.

Gees..is that really the start up cost? Obviously, you want to know that when you are doing this you’re going to get this money back in power savings… or independence…or SOMETHING.

I do recommend the FAQs page…and was strangely fascinated by the amount of info about burning calories in exchange for watts. What I really wanted to find was a break down of how much time was put into running various applicances and how much return was yielded-  how long did you bike and how long did that power run your laptop, or TV or whatever?

How has the bike generator been integrated into daily/home use and has it been an awkward integration or a helpful one? Did it save on electric bills?

 The site seems oreinted towards the novelty of making the costly generator more than anything, which is frustrating. I don’t just want to charge my cell phone guys, I want to artfully abandon the grid!

Maybe the answers are there and I just can’t figure out how to read them…Can you?

http://www.scienceshareware.com/current-amps-watts-draw-while-charging-car-deep-cycle-lead-acid-battery-internal-resistance.htm

 MATT SHARVER  

This guy clearly lays out some specific limitations, and I appreciate a little trial and error related critisim. He  shares information about several models and drew his first model from the Science Share page:

http://www.mattshaver.com/bikegen/index.htm

SOME DUDE 

Here’s a link to a guy who made a generator set up for a reclining bike, and you can contact him to ask him specific questions , which is what I’m about to do….

http://www.kbt-dc-supplies.com/bike.php

EARTH TOYS 

Perhaps one of the most application driven comments comes from this page on a site called  Earth Toys…ironically, it’s our man David Butcher, seemingly dominating everything I find that has to do with pedal power.

He talks alot about ”watt-hours” in this article and I’m not exactly sure what he means… is he creating his own form of measurement for the pedaling to power process? An excerpt where he finally lays it on the line:

“It always feels good to reach 10 Watt-hours. What could 10 Watt-hours do? It could power the little 4 inch LCD Color TV we have for an hour and a half. It could run the monitor on my computer for 12 minutes. My laptop, 20 minutes. The 12 volt radio I listen to while I am pedaling, 10 hours. The LED lights over my head that light the pedal generator while I am working out, 500 hours. Wow. However, it could only run our 27 inch television for 8 minutes. The 120 watt halogen lights over the dining room table, 5 minutes. The toaster, 29 seconds. The whole house, less than 5 seconds.”

 Magic eightball sez- out look not so good for the amount of energy that comes from bike work. For someone who is a daily bike commuter, coming home to a bike power workout doesn’t seem to make too much sense, and I REALLY want to run my toaster for more than 29 seconds.

It’s not pessimism folks, it’s realism. I haven’t given up however– and will post a follow up as I continue to try and figure out how to generate power  in a viable, mobile  way for my upcoming art project.