Friday 22 October 2010

Cycling Power Station



The BBC ran a program late last year called the "Human Power Station", and the bike in the video above is one of the bikes used for that show. The ideas was to power (provide electricity) a house by using a group of muscular cyclists in a gym. The four members of the household were not aware that their house had been connected to a gym and they had to carry out their daily life as usual.

The number of cyclists being used at every point in in time obviously depended on the appliances in use. If I remember very well, there was a maximum of 100 cyclists. The appliances that posed the biggest challenge were the electric shower and kettle. These really got all the cyclists pedaling to their maximum, and even at that power went off after some time.

I tried this for myself last week to see how much I could generate. I have to confess that it was real hard work to produce something meaningful. The maximum power I could produce was about 120 W. So what can that give me?

Five to six low energy light bulbs at 18 W each
or
Two traditional light bulbs at 60 W each
or
A laptop runs at about 75 W
or
A printer runs at about 100 W



Sounds like a good use of my muscular power ;)


Across the UK, people are cutting their energy bills

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5 comments:

  1. I have 2 low energy light bulbs and my laptop on. Chris, get on a bike! Should be enough with your power! :)

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  2. Hi Chris I have just found your blog while looking at renewable energy providers I wondered if you could give me any advice on Good Energy Utility providers..thanks Lorna

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  3. Hi Artymess. I have been following good energy blog and tweets for a while now. They boast about being unique in the sense of being the only 100% renewable electricity provider. If this is the case, then they should be applauded.

    I believe the best way to get more companies focused on renewable energy is for consumers to continue demanding it. The economies of scale will also bring down the price.

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  4. Thanks for answering so promptly..from your answer I guess you haven't switched to Good Energy. ...we want to support renewable energy so we are looking into switching to them....Lorna

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  5. Hi Lorna,

    I would switch if that depended on me alone.

    As regards Good Energy, "Good Energy is the only UK electricity company whose fuel mix is 100% renewable from wind, water and sunlight and was recently voted best energy supplier in a customer satisfaction survey conducted by Which?, achieving the highest overall rating of 79%."

    This information is from the EST. I believe this makes them a reputable company.

    Please let me know how it goes with switching. It would be good to hear how easy it is to do so.

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