Make Electricity While You Exercise

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Why not convert your workout into useful power by using a pedal-powered generator?
Why not convert your workout into useful power by using a pedal-powered generator?
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You can generate electricity using a hand-cranked or foot-operated device (left) or a modified bicycle. An inverter (right) changes the direct current into alternating current for use with many common household appliances.
You can generate electricity using a hand-cranked or foot-operated device (left) or a modified bicycle. An inverter (right) changes the direct current into alternating current for use with many common household appliances.

While you probably won’t produce enough electricity to power your entire house, pedal-powered generators can play a small but useful role in some homes.

Pedal-Powered Generators

My neighbor Linda Archibald has an off-the-grid house that is powered by an array of photovoltaic cells (solar panels). When she asked if she could recharge her backup batteries with a bicycle adapted to generate electricity, I was skeptical — at first.

After doing a little research, I found that an efficient bike generator pedaled by a reasonably fit person can produce about 100 watts of continuous output. An experienced biker can produce a peak of more than 400 watts, but peaks don’t count for much when it comes to pedal power generators. Assuming an ambitious exercise period of one hour, a person could produce about 100 watt-hours of electricity. That is one-tenth of a kilowatt-hour (1 kilowatt-hour = 1,000 watts for 1 hour).

  • Published on Aug 27, 2008
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