Wind-up House

[Ozzy]

Wind up torches are just taking off here. The torch is cute but its real value to me is that you can run your mobile phone off it.

Several years back I saw wind up radios had been invented (with isolated people in mind), and recently wind up laptops.

I wondered how much wind up time would be required to power a house?

I've got an old treddle sewing machine (which is still operational:clap: ), and I know I can get a fast and powerful spin happening. Perhaps the same effect could be achieved with a bicycle gearing type set up.

What think thee, my learned friends?:think:

[Ronald Brak]

I think a person on a bicycle generator can produce about a hundred watts for a considerable period if not too unfit, or maybe 70 watts at relaxed pace that can be maintained for hours. That's enough to power one lightbulb. So unless you have a lot of familly members who are really exercise mad it's not likely to be terribly practical. A horse could presumably produce about 740 watts, that is one horse power; but I don't know how long they can keep that up. You could use oxen for your base load power as they are slow and steady and race horses for peak demand. Instead of batteries you could use hamsters in wheels.

[01101001]

You like your 200-watt reading light?

That's almost .27 horsepower. You could maybe keep that up for around an hour. Soon you would decide to stop from exhaustion. (See Time to Exhaustion vs. Human Power chart at HowStuffWorks (http://computer.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question658.htm&url=http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/~et181/hpv/hpv.html).)

Add a refrigerator, heating/cooling fan, TV, computer and you might go only minutes.

Don't even think about blow-drying your hair, or turning on the electric oven, or heating or cooling your house.

[Ronald Brak]

To be fair, you wouldn't need to heat your house if you're producing all that body heat from pedaling a generator. And just think, you could earn up to 10 cents an hour from pedalling and selling the electricity. Of course, your food bill might go up from all the exercise you're doing.

[Ozzy]

Think of the money you'd save at the gym.

[Ronald Brak]

And entertaining friends at your place.

[Gillianren]

Could gyms be used to produce their own electricity?

[Moose]

Well, all those weight machines and cycles are just producing waste heat anyway. Why not attach them to small generators, sell some juice back to the grid. :)

[LurchGS]

I'm just sticking my oar in here (as an avid follower of the sport) Yer average professional bike racer generates about 275-325 watts. World class racers cna reach 400-450W - for longer than I care to think about.

Get a few of them in the shed out back, and you are set for 23 days...

[mickal555]

I thought about doing this too a cubby house I was planning in grade 4.... Course it never happened...

[Ozzy]

Imagine going to the gym and getting paid to exercise.

And those ADHD kids. Ditch the valium,get 'em on a treddly.

I saw the workings of an old light house, where the light was turned on a bed of mercury (minimal friction). There was a chain with weights running from the light to the ground. You wound up the chain at the bottom of the lighthouse until it reached the top. Then the weights falling powered the light.

What about a hybrid cyclogravitational power source (are we getting the watts up yet?).

[Ronald Brak]

What you really need is a way to steal people's energy without them realizing it, or with them being thankful. For example, get a job as a dog walker and then put the dogs in a big generator wheel. Throw in a cat for peak demand times. Invite people to your house and use mirrors to make it look as though your hall is really long when actually they are walking on a power generating treadmill. Replace your kids video game joysticks with massive gears connected to generators. Hook up all the doors in your house so they generate electricity when you open them. Connect your kids shoes up to a generator and battery strapped to their backs so they can charge up when they go out to play.

[Ozzy]

Power from the People!

My four year old has anough energy to power two houses! and if we could hook up his mouth some way ... now there's a motor.:lol: