My friend King sent this and I thought it was pretty interesting.
— From King —
If you don’t like the first link, give-up on the rest because they are all
on the same topic.http://www.econvergence.net
/electro.htm http://www.windstreampower.com
/humanpower/ppg.html http://www.voanews.com/english
/2007-03-11-voa14.cfm http://www.gulland.ca/homenerg
y/lindabike.htm http://users.erols.com/mshaver
/bikegen.htm http://www.otherpower.com
/otherpower_experiments _bicycle.html
— End From King —
I was biting my tongue when I saw the “average person can generate 150 to 200 watts of power” in that first article. Maybe if you set them on fire…
One of the later articles was talking about 50 watts which made MUCH more sense. My exercycle has a “watts” reading and, if it’s at all accurate, 200 watts is a LOT of exertion.
I recall at the Science center that you could watch yourself on that TV, I was never 100% sure how much you were powering, was it just the TV or was it the TV camera as well? With modern LCD panels and cool new CCD technology I imagine it would take a lot less effort now, but even the most stalwart pedaler would only last in the 10’s of seconds.
It’s a neat idea, I don’t think many of those “green” suggestions (the cool bikes in the later articles) are ever going to be to practical in our weather region. We’ve mentally (socially) evolved beyond the desire to get soaked or frozen trying to get to work.
Heck, even car pools seem to be an impossibility nowadays, especially with flex hours and whatnot.