Pedal Powered Generator
https://www.los-gatos.ca.us/pedgen.html
A 36" particle board disk with a groove routed in the edge serves as the flywheel and crankshaft for the permanent magnet 36 volt DC motor ( 1 2 ) seen at the upper right edge of the device. A small-pitch chain provides the power transfer system. The groove around the outer edge is lined with "rim strips" - thin rubber straps that prevented the chain from slipping and digging into the particle board. They are standard bicycle parts. The motor was obtained around 1985 from Northern Hydraulic, now known as Northern Tool and Equipment Company.
The bottom frame is welded steel plate and channel, the crankset is an American Schwinn ball bearing set, a cotterless crank conversion spindle, alloy cranks and cheap pedals with toe clips.
The crankset has a steel chainwheel on it. I drilled some larger holes in the chainwheel and bolted the particle board disk to it. It was strong enough (fine Schwinn steel!) to hold the weight of the particle board disk and run true. I routed an oblong hole through the particleboard disk for the "arm" of the crankset.
The seatpost and handlebar tube are standard galvanized water pipe. The generator/motor is mounted on a piece of 3/4 plywood visible in the motor pictures seen above, which is then bolted to the water-pipe frame.
The particle board disk is a key feature of this unit. The weight of the disk serves as an excellent flywheel. Human legs and pedals create an extremely "peaky" torque curve, resulting in jerky motion and lots of stress on parts. The flywheel smoothes this all out by absorbing part of the energy on the power stroke, lowering peak torque, and releasing it on the "dead" part of the stroke, creating torque where human legs/pedals cannot generate any. Another thing to remember is that human legs do not like extreme stress. The flywheel allows the human to avoid having to generate extreme pressure during the power stroke just to make it past the "dead" spots. Many "bicycle converters" lack the flywheel characteristic because tires/rims are designed to be so light.
Noisy but extremely efficient, I have powered 12V CHAIN SAWS directly (yes, while someone else cut wood with them) with this unit.(1) Pedaling position was similar to a bicycle. The seat is barely visible at the upper left of the photo, and the handlebars (dropped, as on a ten speed road bike) are at the upper right.
Burst output: 25 amps at 17 volts (425 Watts)
30 minute average output (back when I was in shape) 150 Watts
Accessories:
A drill chuck threaded into the end of the motor shaft provided power for a flexible shaft drive. Drilling 1/2" holes through 2x4 fir with this arrangement was easy. The flex-shaft was rated at 1/2 HP (a commercial unit, about 3/4 in. thick - not a "dremel" type!!) and I was still worried that the torque would be too much for it.
For immediate electrical use, cigarette lighter outlets provided ready access to the juice. I even had a small 12v toaster oven, and pedaled my bagels to toast more than once. For storage I would charge a 12v 100Ah fork-lift battery. I could approximate the output of a 10 amp battery charger.
Be careful - I burned out several expensive 12v halogen bulbs powering them directly. I had no voltage control and exuberant pedaling would fry the bulbs in short order. When the storage battery was connected, this was less of a problem because the battery tended to even out the voltage, but sprinting would still raise the voltage to the danger level.
At one point a ball-bearing 3600 GPH pump was substituted for the generator, resulting in amazing water pumping capacity. The suction from the pump was strong enough to collapse the heavy wall 1 inch vinyl tubing used for the intake (radiator hose would have been better, with the wire reinforcement) and the output shot a stream of water about 25 feet across the street. A 5 gallon bucket was emptied using this pump in less than half the time it took a garden hose to fill it. I believe the pump was driven to capacity (1 gallon per seconds, emptying the bucket in five seconds) in sprints.
Instrumentation consisted of a voltmeter and an ammeter, which together provided me with state of battery charge, output watts and somewhat of a "speedometer." The math was easy: VOLTS x AMPS = WATTS. A 50 amp silicon stud diode mounted to a four inch square piece of aluminum sheet metal prevented reverse current flows, and became satisfyingly warm after long sprints (it is mounted in the center of the aluminum plate visible in the first motor picture). For top efficiency (and safety), a switch was also installed to completely isolate the diode and motor/generator from the battery.
I never had a chance to determine how efficient the unit was in converting mechanical energy to electrical energy, but I believe it was probably quite good. When running, only 4 ball bearings were turning, the only high-speed part was the armature of the motor, and I know from research that chains can be as high as 97% efficient in power transfer. The permag motor was probably better then average at power generation, because it was designed to be efficient as a motor. In "reverse" tests, with the motor driving the unit with no load, the power consumed was less than an amp at 12 volts. This is negligible, and much of it was resistance loss in the motor windings, since the motor drew half an amp with no load connected to it.
Status: The device out-lasted me. I still have the motor and flex-shaft, but several job-related moves finally forced me to dismantle the unit.
Future: There are many other possibilities that I can think of for this device. The efficiency and variable speed of the output are two features that can be exploited. Here are some other devices that could be powered by the basic unit:
- Pedal powered backup generator for solar electric systems. With the newly available white LED as a light source, a few minutes of pedaling would be enough to create hours of light.
- Pedal powered washing machine (this would be a tremendous workout, especially with the spin/sprint at the end!)
- Pedal powered clothes dryer (when combined with a simple solar hot-air collector, the pedals would tumble the clothes and move the air)
- Pedal powered whole-house ventilation fan (15 minutes in the evening to cool off an entire house)
- Pedal powered watering system when combined with a cistern to store rainwater
- Pedal powered whole-house (central) vacuum cleaner - requires two people, of course
- Pedal powered air compressor (compressing air takes a LOT of power, and is not very efficient. This would work for small jobs only, like staple guns, caulking guns, small hand tools - no jackhammers!!)
- Pedal powered offset printing press, sewing machine (an ancient idea), hand tools (grinder, buffer, drill, reciprocating saw, lathe), mulch grinder
Basically, any device that was hand cranked, foot-powered, or powered by a fractional horsepower electric motor could potentially be converted to pedal power.
Also note, if the base unit is being used to power an auxiliary device instead of producing electricity, adding a solar panel will result in additional power from the motor! That means whatever device you are powering would receive the combined power of the human pedaler and the solar panel. This combination makes the best of both power sources, as efficiency would be very high, because the solar output would not suffer the losses of being stored and then extracted from a battery. Charging a battery and then extracting the same power is less than 80% efficient, and can be much worse. Direct utilization captures that wasted power.
Finally, keep in mind that a tandem setup for the pedals, with the pedals out-of-phase, doubles the power and smoothes out the power flow. Only one "flywheel" is needed, so this enhancement needs only a simple pedal/seat addition to the basic unit. With out-of-phase pedals, peak torque is not increased, so other parts of the system are not stressed. The torque curve for a complete revolution of the flywheel simply smoothes out, while RPM's stay constant, resulting in twice the power.
Over time, a number of questions have asked about the information on the page. Here are some Frequently Asked Questions and answers/opinions:
Do you have plans available?
No. I am working on drawings of this generator and a recumbent version, but they are not yet available.
Would a car alternator work better for generating power?
No. Most automotive alternators have one ball/one sleeve bearing, a built-in power-robbing cooling fan, and they require external power to excite them at low-to moderate RPM's. They have never been designed with efficiency in mind, since they were attached to monstrous motors capable of producing orders of magnitude more power than the alternator required. They actually produce AC power, which subsequently must be rectified to DC to charge batteries. This step causes significant power loss in the diodes (around 5%). As I noted above, I ran power output around the diode and directly into the battery to avoid this loss. In addition, alternators are designed to run at extremely high RPM's (alternator pulleys are smaller than the driving pulley on the engine, meaning the alternator turns FASTER than the car engine. Look at your tachometer reading and double it. Whew!), and do not produce usable power until they are rotating quite rapidly, requiring high ratio's of step-up from your pedals. A well-designed permanent-magnet ball-bearing motor, preferable one designed to squeeze every last bit of power out of a set of batteries, will beat an automotive alternator in efficiency.
Wouldn't gears help generate more power? And what about belts instead of chains?
Maybe. Humans can only pedal through a small speed range, about 40-120 RPM's. Below that you can strain your joints, and above that efficiency falls off. There is a "magic" speed (different for every human being) at which they can generate maximum power. The proper gear ratio enables the human to pedal at that speed. You may have noticed, though, that a human's maximum power output can change quickly from fatigue, and slowly from changes in conditioning and age. The magic speed is always changing, so having a few closely-spaced "gears" or ratios may enable a better match of human to generator. No matter what, though, gears don't create energy, they waste energy, so having fewer of them is always better. The same goes for bearings, even ball bearings. The pedal-power generator described on this page had very few of both, so it was very efficient.
Regarding belts, the transfer efficiency of most belts is less than chains. This is mostly due to flexing energy loss within the belt material and friction losses at the engagement points between the belt and the pulleys. Belts also work best when transferring low torque at high speed (the opposite of what a pair of legs produce!) which is why you do not see them on bicycles, for example. There may be some exotic, thin, high strength belts that could approach the efficiency of chains with the right design. For example, the "serpentine" belts used in modern automobile engines are much more efficient than the old "V-belts" from the past. Belts rely on friction to transfer power. Friction is bad. The best feature of belts is that they are quiet, so I can't say to avoid them completely. If you decide to use a belt to transfer power, use the thinnest, strongest belt you can find, and place only enough tension on it to keep it from slipping during use. I do not know whether equivalent "toothed" and "grooved" belts are equally efficient, but I believe the toothed belt has slightly lower friction losses. If I can ever find some real research data on the web I will link it in here.
How much power can one human being create?
This is an opinion. I used to be a competitive swimmer, and for a number of years, I worked out 6 hours a day, swimming approximately 13 miles. Yes, 13 miles a day. If you pedaled that hard for that long you might be able to run one ordinary refrigerator for 24 hours. To make any kind of significant contribution to your energy supply, you must use the most efficient devices you possibly can. For example, a small refrigerator designed to be powered by solar power would be much more practical. A rule of thumb: if the device was designed to be powered by batteries, even BIG batteries, you might be able to keep up with it.
If your electric bill shows KWH (kilowatt-hours), take the number, multiply by 4 (assuming you can crank out 250 watts for an hour) and that is how many hours you will have to be in the saddle to create the same amount of power. Sorry, it can be depressing. The moral: Using less power is as important, if not more important, than making more.
There are numerous sources of efficient appliances on the web. One place I like to shop is Real Goods, and of course I have spent time inventing my own efficient devices. The white LED light I built shows how technology can create new solutions to increase efficiency. Pedaling for an hour at the 200 watt pace, with 80% efficiency of generation/storage/extraction, would create enough energy to run that light for 320 hours!!!
Can I generate 110V? Can I run my electric meter backwards?
I don't recommend this! If someone were to replace the permanent magnet DC motor in a pedal generator (such as the one on this page) with a 1/4 to 1/2 horsepower 110V induction motor and pedal that it would result in an amazing thing. If the motor was hooked to the power lines and it was "pedaled faster than it wanted to go", it would start generating 110V alternating current. Beautiful sine wave AC. If it was creating more energy than your clocks, refrigerator, all those little square black power supplies you have plugged in around the house, your lights, and that 300 watt stereo you are listening to while you pedal all use together, your electric meter would slowly creep backwards. However, that same motor would generate exactly 0 power if it is not plugged in to 110V AC.
For very light duty "off the grid" use of 110V AC, you can try pedaling your 12V DC generator into a large battery and hooking up an inverter (12V DC - 110V AC) to get some pretty decent 110V power. You CAN'T use this method to "run your meter backwards"!!!! In general, plan on being able to pedal about 100-250 watts for half an hour or so.
For efficiency, however, you are much better off producing 12V DC for a 12V DC TV (for example) than you are producing 12V DC to charge a battery to run an inverter to power a 110V AC TV. The UPS (uninterruptable power supply) for my website computer system can power the computer for about five minutes. The same battery (12v 1.5 AH) would power my laptop computer for about 45 minutes. Everything (efficiency-wise) works FOR you when the device being powered is designed to be efficient (12V DC) and AGAINST you when it is not (110V AC).
How big should my batteries be?
If you are considering building a similar system, plan on using two batteries, and a simple switch which allows you to use one while charging the other. Flip this switch right before you begin charging to ensure that you are charging the battery with the lowest charge (the one most recently used). Also be sure to use a battery that is roughly equal to ten or twenty times your power output for a charging session. For example, if you crank out ten amps for an hour each time you charge, choose a 100-200 amp hour battery. Larger batteries will simply loose charge through self-discharge faster, resulting is less efficiency for your system and more useless work for you.
Remember:
1. The most efficient way to use the power you create is not to create electricity at all, but to power your (pump, fan, hoist, winch, drill press, grinder, sewing machine, etc.) directly.
2. The second most efficient way to use the power is to pedal a generator to electrically power your (television, radio, floodlight, chain saw, laptop computer) directly, with no battery. Be careful about voltage, or use a good regulator.
3. The least efficient way to use your power is to generate electricity and store it in a battery, then extract it from the battery to power some device. Avoid this method in favor of methods 1 and 2!!
For more information, read this excellent writeup giving details on a different design based on a bicycle and rollers. .
(1) Three things about the chain saw. One, I was in great shape and probably was generating over one horsepower in the sprint. Two, the branch/log was about three inches in diameter - not anything near the 14 inch bar length. And three, the saw was a 12 volt saw, so it was designed to be efficient. The literature from the saw said that the motor was a permanent magnet Bosch electric winch motor, which was a good match for the maximum output of the pedal generator. It was great to see the chips fly!
Back To: [
David Butcher's Personal Page ]
This page is hosted by The
WEBworks * Copyright 1994, All Rights Reserved
http://users.erols.com/mshaver/bikegen.htm
Bicycle Powered Generator
I
skim a few Usenet newsgroups daily, among them misc.survivalism
and alt.energy.homepower. Frequently
posters on these two groups will inquire about generating electricity using a
stationary bike coupled to some sort of generator. Most replies are to the
effect that while it's possible to do this, the amount of power output by such
a rig when pedaled by the average person wouldn't be worth the effort. I wasn't
convinced that this idea was a lost cause. I decided to build one and see how
well it worked.
Because bikes are made in a range of sizes to match their rider's stature I wanted to build the generator as an accessory which could be driven by any ordinary bicycle. I used to work in a bicycle shop when I was 13 and remember seeing the owner, Mr. Hank, ride his track bike on a set of rollers. While I was looking through bike accessory catalogs for rollers that I could adapt to my purposes I came across another similar device called a training stand. While rollers require a lot of skill to ride because there is nothing but the gyroscopic force of the spinning wheels and the rider's balance to hold you upright, a training stand clamps on the rear axle of the bike and keeps you vertical.
To
make a long story short I bought the most versatile training stand I could find
and then did extensive modifications to the roller assembly. Originally the
ball bearings were pressed into the bore of the roller at the outer ends. The
roller assembly spun on a stationary axle fixed to the frame. The end of the
roller, opposite the integral three pound flywheel, drove the hub of a
centrifugal clutch. The shoes of the clutch engaged a stationary drum which
provided resistance increasing with speed. I had to make a new axle which is
locked to the roller and move the bearings to machined aluminum plates outboard
of the steel frame. The plates are made to a standard NEMA 42 size and provide
the mounting surface for a permanent magnet DC motor that is driven as a
generator through a flexible coupling. The other end of the axle exits from the
bearing through an identical plate and is available for PTO use. You can see a
black sprocket on that end of the axle in the pictures. I also had to weld in a
brace to stiffen up the frame to allow carrying the extra weight of the
generator. I'm pleased with the result. Even under heavy load it runs cool and
relatively friction free. The part of the frame that clamps to the rear axle of
the bike pivots with respect to the ground so that the rider's entire weight
forces the tire into contact with the roller reducing slippage to a minimum.
The black object under the front wheel is a contoured plastic block that levels
the bike to avoid the feeling of riding downhill.
I
have done quite a few tests to see how much output power could be produced and
what practical applications there were. See the tables below for a list of
those tests and the results. In summary I think the most practical application
of the bicycle powered generator would be battery charging. This application
presents a constant load to the rider which allows them to select a single gear
ratio which lets them pedal at their optimal cadence. Another practical
application is running small appliances and tools which use universal series
wound motors or permanent magnet DC motors. All of the motorized items in the
table below have universal series wound motors and would run on DC even though
their nameplates all said "120 Volts AC Only". Induction type motors
such as those found in washing machines and shaded pole motors which are used
in clocks really are AC only and won't work at all. I couldn't get my variable
speed drill to work, probably because the speed control electronics are
incompatible with DC. Good candidates are appliances or tools that can perform
their functions with 300 watts of input power or less and which present a
narrow range of loads such as the mixer and electric drill. Although producing
heat with electricity is usually a bad idea, I think that small soldering irons
might also work well since they are almost all are under 100 watts and most are
less than 50 watts. Since there is no voltage regulation at all, connecting the
generator output directly to the power input jack of battery powered TVs,
radios, and similar devices will probably destroy the sensitive electronics.
Use the generator to charge the batteries, and power the electronics from the
batteries. Since the generator is capable of outputting several amps it may be
best to charge only batteries that can accept a charging rate in this range,
and then building an efficient switchmode regulator to charge smaller cells and
batteries off of the large battery. The final, and as yet unexplored,
application is hitching mechanical loads such as a water pump or grain grinder
to the PTO end of the axle using roller chain. I expect a lot more useful work
out of this arrangement as it avoids the inefficient conversion of the rider's
mechanical energy into electricity and then back to mechanical energy via
electric motors. Using 27" tire diameter on the bike and a 10 MPH
"road speed" the roller will turn at about 2600 RPM. The sprocket
shown is the smallest I could find at 9 teeth for 1/2" pitch #41 chain, so
you would need to figure from there what size sprocket you need on the load to
give the desired load RPM. One suggestion that came up during testing was to
drive a heavy flywheel to dampen out electrical load variations, but that was
never tried.
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Electrical Tests: |
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Load |
Output |
Comments |
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Open Circuit |
230 Volts DC |
Spinning it as fast as possible in the highest gear that the test bike had and measuring the output with a DMM. |
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Short Circuit |
4 to 5 Amps DC |
Generator output shorted by the DMM on the 20A DC scale. This measurement doesn't mean much because it took a lot of torque to turn the generator against a short circuit. It was hard to get consistent readings due to the speed fluctuations from the low rate of pedaling that could be achieved. |
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2 Ohm Wirewound Resistor |
5.5 to 6 Volts DC (15 to 18 Watts) |
This test had the same problem as the short circuit current test, the load impedance was too low to allow the rider to pedal effectively. |
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65 Ohm Wirewound Resistor |
100 Volts DC (150 Watts) Continuous, 130 Volts DC (260 Watts) Peak |
The continuous figure is what the rider felt he could keep up for 15 to 30 minutes. The peak value was a few second burst of speed. |
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100 Ohm Wirewound Resistor |
100 Volts DC (100 Watts) Continuous, 150 Volts DC (225 Watts) Peak |
The difference between this test and the previous one could be variability of effort on the part of the rider, perhaps as a result of fatigue. Another possibility is impedance mismatch between the source (generator) and load. The generator has a very low output impedance and the ideal load would be the lowest resistance that will still allow the rider to pedal at an effective rate. |
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Practical tests: |
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Load (Nameplate Data) |
Results |
Comments |
|
Battery Charging |
Great |
Able to push a continuous 4 to 6 amps into a 12 Volt automobile battery. The best setup was to put a rectifier diode in series with the generator output. This stopped the battery current from driving the generator backwards and enabled the rider to start pedaling without any initial resistance. It was then possible to take up the charging current load gradually as the generator output exceeded the battery voltage plus the forward voltage drop across the diode. |
|
Waring Multispeed Handmixer |
Good |
Moderate pedaling effort was required to run this appliance up to operating speed. I loaded the motor by trying to slow the rotation of the beaters by hand. There was plenty of available torque to use the mixer in its typical applications. I'm certain that similar appliances such as blenders and food processors would work just as well. |
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Black & Decker 3/8" Drill Model 7104 Type 1 (2.9 Amps 1200 RPM) |
Fair |
Lots of 1/4" holes were drilled through a 2" thick piece of framing lumber with a standard high speed twist drill and I'm sure that larger holes would be possible. The only special consideration was to ensure a steady feed rate while drilling to avoid load fluctuations. |
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Black & Decker 7-1/4" Circular Saw Model 7308 Type 5(1-1/2 HP 9 Amps 1200 RPM) |
Poor |
Considerable pedaling effort was required to get the saw up to operating speed and it bogged down to a standstill when a cut through a 2 x 4 was tried. We might have been able to cut 1/4" plywood or luan. I think the problem is that the motor in this tool is designed for maximum power output regardless of conversion efficiency. I'm sure a person has enough power to saw a board, after all, I can do it with a hand saw using only the muscles in one arm! I would like to try this test with a saw designed to run efficiently on DC such as the battery operated ones made by DeWalt. |
|
McCulloch ElectraMac Chainsaw Model EM14ES (2 HP 11Amps) |
Useless |
This tool's motor has the same characteristics as the circular saw. It was impossible to get it up to full speed, and the blade merely bounced off the surface of the log and stalled when any meaningful cutting force was applied. The nameplate claimed 2 horsepower and the motor's size was perhaps 3" in diameter and 6" long. |
Acknowledgements:
During my "what if" phase of research on the internet I was directed to David Butcher's Pedal Generator page which provided me with the proof of concept I needed to justify building my own version of a bicycle powered generator. I think my results correlate well with his.
I would also like to thank my long time friend Mike who spent several hours with his Paramount mountain bike clamped in my contraption pedaling diligently while I measured and fiddled around. For reference he is in his mid 50's, in good physical health, a non-smoker and semi-regular recreational cyclist, so you can scale your own expectations accordingly.
- An easy to build stand that will accept any bicycle
- Easily creates 150 to 200 watts at 12 to 20 volts DC
- Bicycle easily disengages from stand for immediate road use
- Stand folds easily for transport
https://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm
The Pedal-a-Watt bike was designed to keep the user
aerobically fit while creating some extra power that may be sent to a bank of
batteries. These batteries may then be tapped at a later time, after dark
for example, when the energy is needed to power lights or appliances. The
Pedal-a-Watt bicycle is an excellent addition to an existing battery system
that may already be charged from the photovoltaic panels, 120 VAC grid power or
wind power. The concept behind the Pedal-a-Watt bicycle is that
electricity can be created from human effort and then stored in batteries.
The average rider will produce between 150 and 200 watts using the Pedal-a-Watt. While this may not seem like much power, solid state equipment draws very little power and can be powered for long spans of time with small amounts of power. VHF/UHF Ham Radios, laptops, and DC stereos all draw small amounts of current at 12 volts DC. In addition, LED lighting and high efficiency fluorescent lighting now allow 200 watts to go a long way. A typical 25 watt fluorescent light bulb, which replaces a 100 watt incandescent bulb, will last 8 hours on 200 watts worth of power. LEDs (light emitting diodes) are even more efficient and will last days on 200 watts worth of power.
Any bicycle that is in good shape will suffice for mating to the Pedal-a-Watt platform. However, bicycles with wheels of larger diameters, such as 27 inches as opposed to 16 inches, create more mechanical advantage. Both street bikes, with very narrow, smooth tires, and mountain bikes, with wide, knobby tires, have been used with equal success. The bicycle is placed upon the stand, which is an Advent Mag-Trainer. It comes assembled and folds up easily for transport - even after the alternator is added.
The parts cost a total of about $115 and are available via mail order. Our plans include all suppliers and part numbers needed to order each component.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at Bill@econvergence.net.
Thanks for your interest,
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https://www.angelfire.com/biz/petflicker/page9.html
too slow to load = https://www.zetatalk3.com/energy/tengy05g.htm
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The International Guide to Alternatives in Cycling Compiled and written by Hannes Neupert of Extra Energy, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting muscle-electrically powered vehicles. Extra Energy, Koskauer Strabe 98 / D - 07922 Tanna, Germany |
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More Power To You Gone are the days when the pleasure of
cycling was inextricably linked with the not-so-pleasurable strain of
hill-climbing or the tiresome grind in the teeth of a headwind. Today we can
choose how hard we work, thanks to a new genre of vehicle, the pedelec. This
ExtraEnergy section of this year’s Encycleopedia gives just a brief glimpse
into what may become a new renaissance for pedal-power in urban transport.
The new technology offers the opportunity for whole new sectors of society to
rediscover human-powered mobility, thanks to pedelecs which bring the comfort
level of cycling up to the level expected by today’s consumers. That this is
a reality, rather than some optimistic fiction, is proved by a look at the
sales figures for 1999. |
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"The Rabbit Tool folding e-bike is an excellent example of a vehicle to be used in conjunction with other modes of transport. The Rabbit Tool hub motor is also particularly suitable for use in multi-track load-carriers and special bikes." -Hannes Neupert of Extra Energy |
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Rabbit Tool O.J. Birkestrand heads a mechanical engineering firm making small machine tools in Illinois, USA, and has been developing the electric wheel's hub motor assembly for several years. Motor, throttle, controller and battery pack are designed to be fitted to existing vehicles with minimum modification. Birkestrand is keen to emphasize that Rabbit Tool are not developers: the Dahon machine is a technology demonstrator, designed to show manufacturers of existing light-weight vehicles the potential of their new motor and battery technologies. Rabbit is in the process of tooling up for high-volume production of the system, allowing for wider distribution. In the USA, complete systems (motor, battery, throttle, controller) cost from $500. |
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Electrical engineer Fr. Bert Otten, SJ, designed solar panels for a Jesuit Refugee Service office in Angola, far from his usual Seattle haunts. In July 1997 I was in
Africa, I had entered the Society of Jesus back in '53, intending to major in sociology or serve in foreign missions. That part of my vocation was inspired by working at summer camps for inner-city children. But early in my studies I did well in electrical engineering and enjoyed it, and I followed the invitation of Fr. Victor Blum, SJ, engineering dean at St. Louis University, to continue in it. During most of my Jesuit life I have been involved in teaching electrical engineering at St. Louis University, Missouri University in Columbia, Rockhurst College in Kansas City, and now Seattle University. I have enjoyed the hundreds of EE students with whom I have worked in class and on projects. It is rewarding to help them develop an understanding of nature, learn to design something useful, simulate it on a computer, and then build it. Engineering has also gotten me involved with interesting projects. I have journeyed with seismologists to the bottom of a lead mine in Missouri to set up a strain extensometer that would measure earthquakes in the New Madrid fault. I have worked on a Jesuit shortwave radio network that linked remote mission stations in Honduras. I have collaborated with Vatican Observatory astronomers in Tucson and at Castel Gandolfo near Rome on the design of telescopes and instrumentation. I have even gathered data for asteroid light curves at an observatory at Mauna Kea in Hawaii. After a bit of prayer and the realization that I was in my early 60s, I decided that I might not be able to walk by the time my next sabbatical opportunity came. If I wanted to do solar work and appropriate technology in a developing country, it was now or never. I teach at Seattle University in the Jesuits' Oregon Province; it works closely with the Jesuits' Zambia-Malawi Province in Africa, which operates the Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre (KATC) in Zambia. KATC's technology workshop was a natural place for me to head. In Zambia, as all over Africa, deforestation and desertification are big problems. Most people use wood for cooking, butting up five-inch-diameter logs in a "star" fashion. As the fire burns, the cooks push the logs toward the burning center. In addition, many people make their living turning trees into charcoal for sale in the cities. Wood is being used up rapidly; in Katondwe, Fr. Joseph Olewski, a Jesuit I was visiting, had to haul it from three miles distant. KATC teaches sustainable agricultural techniques to make life in the villages more full and satisfying. We introduced five designs of solar box cookers (we even cooked cornbread in demonstrations) in the hope of eventually taking some stress off the supply of trees. The heat these cookers generate is also enough to pasteurize water, and this helps attack intestinal diseases, which contribute to the high infant mortality rate in Africa. The solar cooker was just one of our projects. Using a large cylindrical parabolic mirror, we were able to use sunlight to produce steam to power a small irrigation pump. We worked with photovoltaic solar panels to produce electricity for homes and a hospital. We repaired radios, cassettes, and TVs. For a few folks fortunate enough to have electricity in their homes I repaired stoves and refrigerators, and I also became adept at fixing the electrical systems of tractors and water pumps. After the sabbatical was over, I returned to Seattle University, wondering how to connect the talents of students in a sophisticated First World engineering program to the needs of people in the developing world. With financing from my Francis P. Wood, SJ/Boeing Chair in electrical engineering, I sponsored a year-long senior design project exploring ways of bringing electricity to a thatched-roof village home. Electrical engineering student Cynthia Gilbert came up with a way of shorting out bad cells of old auto batteries so that the remaining cells are useable. Phil Stewart, another EE student, designed a mechanism for rotating solar panels to follow the sun, while his classmate Mohammed Al-Jassar worked up a regulator circuit for use with the panels. Mechanical engineering students Stephan Olsen and Chris Brown worked on ways to drive an alternator to charge a battery via pedal power from a stationary bike and also by steam created by solar energy. Thanks to these and other students, my dream of transferring technology was taking shape. So in July 1997 I found myself back in Africa, drawn by many attachments: the desire to see friends, a fascination with the continent, wanting to see a dam I had designed (see related story) filled with water and being used by people, and, most important, exploring ways to involve more engineering students in this experience. The latter was my "justification" for going. Part of my ongoing, developing dream is to locate a couple of students for a few months at sites where they can use their skills to benefit people and in turn learn about their cultures.
One potential site is a Jesuit Refugee Service facility in Angola, where I helped install the solar power supply for lighting and computers last year. There will be additional solar projects for volunteers, and they could also help establish a water system (at present water is carried to the site over a distance of one kilometer), teach English or arithmetic, or lend a hand to any number of other projects. A Jesuit parish in Kabwe, a small Zambian town, presents another opportunity. There are some old buildings in the back of the parish house that the pastor would like to use to teach skills such as blacksmithing and carpentry. He needs electricity for lighting and running power tools. Another remote parish in Chisgombe is powered by a water-driven generator badly in need of repair. The electrical distribution system is in need of redesign. Students who go will experience a culture that is in sharp contrast to the one they know in the United States. They will get some idea of how most of the people on the planet live. They will learn some of the beauty of African culture and will make friends different from any they have met before. Perhaps they will see the horror that war can do to a society and the effects of colonization. They will be offered a new perspective on their privileges and responsibilities as members of a First World society. And they will find satisfaction and enjoyment in working with fine people. This fall I am once again back at Seattle University teaching electrical engineering courses, encouraging international projects especially in the developing world, and trying to organize the African Project. In September I made my annual eight-day retreat; it was a great opportunity to look back over my 65 years and give thanks for the texture and richness that God has put into my life as a Jesuit, a priest, and a human being. |
To Make a Lakeby Fr. Bert Otten, SJCommercial wheat farmers up-stream from Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre (KATC) in Zambia were using all the water from the Ngwerere River for irrigation and were turning the river into dust for a month at a crack, twice a year. You can imagine how this affected morale at an agricultural training center. After fruitless negotiations with the water association, Br. Paul Desmarais, a Canadian Jesuit who is director of KATC, decided to build a dam. I taught myself surveying. We picked the best site for the project, and a retired British agricultural advisor, John Williams, taught me how to design earth dams. We started construction with tractor-drawn dam scoops provided by donations from MISEREOR and the American embassy. The Zambian National Service (ZNS) was enlisted to do a little over half of the work after we calculated that it would take us about two and a half years to complete it with just our resources. FACSI, a Jesuit source, and the Diocese of Stuttgart also donated funds. There were many frustrations: one of the banks holding our funds failed, and our heavy equipment went on the fritz repeatedly. I had extended my sabbatical by a year for this project, but I finally had to leave. Once the rainy season started, Br. Desmarais, his crew, and the ZNS worked even on weekends until the 365-yard-wide dam and spillways were complete enough to handle the rest of the rainy season. If the rising water, which rose to only an inch or so from the top of the dam, had breached it, the whole thing would have been washed away. The resulting lake is spectacular. It backs up about two and a half miles from the dam and is 30 feet deep at its deepest. People now have an assured source of water during the entire year. They also have fish to eat --adding protein to their diet --and to sell in town.
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Author Fr. Bert Otten, SJ, had the opportunity to introduce his solar cookers to women's groups in Tijuana this summer before returning to Seattle University to teach electrical engineering. |
https://www.companysj.com/v151/african.html
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Pedal Power Generator Basic
Idea: While jumping or running
our legs are generating 50-200 Watts of power. If this is converted to
electricity and stored in a battery can't we use it in the night for lighting
purposes? For
example: A 11 Watt CFL bulb can
light up a room. Radio, taperecorder, loud speaker use about 1-5 Watts. An
LED light consumes less than 1 Watt. Thus a human being is capable of
generating his/her own lighting needs! How AID
approached the problem: We initiated a
collaboration with the Industrial Design Centre, IIT-Mumbai through a
student-project. By Jan 2000 the prototype of the Pedal Power generator
generating 40 watts was ready. This excited activists such as Michael
Mazgaonkar who connected us with Ronnie Sabawalla of Rashron Auto Ltd. To
take a laboratory model to the point of mass production we need people
experienced in manufacturing. By June 2000, Ronnie Bhai made a new prototype
that could generate 70 Watts. This was installed in Domkhedi village, which
is in the tribal belt of Maharshtra where there is no electricity grid. When
the Satyagraha against submergene due to SSP dam was launched in July 2000,
thousands of people came from these regions and when they saw this Bijli Bike
they pedalled! Medha Patkar commented that this was the first CFL in the
valley, more than 50 years after independence! The brightly lit Satyagraha
hut in the dark background of the hills was quite a sight even from a
distance. The feed-back of the village people on posture and pedalling speed
helped make an improved batch of 7 new pedal powered generators. By 2001-2002 the design
has been perfected and the Pedal Power Generator is available from Rashron
Ltd through mail order. It costs about Rs 7500. AID is subsidizing about 50 %
of the costs for schools and NGOs working in villages without electricity.
More than 30 generators to groups in several states including Jharkhand,
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and
Gujarat have been dispatched. To order contact aid@vsnl.com
Simultaneously we are
collaborating with BSFC in Mozda village to set up a workshop so that
alternate energy through pedal and wind can be pursued there. This will help
create livelihoods in the rural areas while providing electricity. Why are
Village People So Interested? The Economics... We conducted an energy
survey in Nimgavhan village, that neighbours Domkhedi. On an average a tribal
household consumes 3-5 litres kerosene a month for the kerosene lanterns or
oil wicks. At Rs 9 per litre this is about Rs 35 a month. In addition
batteries for torchlights cost another Rs 30 or so a month. In the Nimghavan
Jeevanshala (boarding school for 100 children) there were 9 kerosene lamps
and average expense of Rs 270 a month. Another Rs 150 for batteries. All these kerosene lamps
won't even generate half a unit (KWHr) worth of light in a month, and yet it
costs a rural household Rs 65 a month..... thus the rural people pay 50-100
times more per unit of light than the city people. What
inspired this work? When we were travelling
in the tribal villages in Andhra Pradesh and in the Narmada valley we saw
that little children were studying late in the night -- as late as 9-10 PM in
Non-Formal Education centre's in AP and till midnight even in Jeevanshalas or
boarding schools run by NBA. Since the entire village was dark these children
would share one oil lamp between 5-10 kids and read in that light. Moreover
the very people who were being displaced by the dams for the sake of
hydropower were people whom the government decided to leave in darkness --
that there were lights in rehabilitation sites mattered little as there was
no land in these sites for farmers to have a livelihood -- so no one was
willing to move. Who
should use Pedal Power? Certainly village schools
and NGOs will be driven by the need. In addition this is a very good educational
device for the city schools because children should learn how easy it is to
be self-reliant and how simple it is to start tackling the enrgy problem.
People in cities should feel happy to try alternatives in solidarity with the
poor, and have a change in life-style. What are
the future directions and other projects? In pedal power we want to
try LED lights. More work is needed in the front of batteries. For example,
circuits that switch off when battery power is low and prevent over-discharge
need to be made and more easily available in rural areas. Every village has
at least one government subsidized solar panel that is usually lying in
dis-use or under-use. This has to be addressed. Alternate energy has to
also be connected with local livelihoods. Solar PV technology is high-tech.
and not much use for villages or even small cities in terms of generating
livelihoods there. On the other hand things like pedalpower, windmills,
biodiesel run engines can generate employment at the level of towns. Also
electricity must not be equated with energy and there can be number of
initiatives that directly use the energy for water pumping etc. Finally...In
a nut shell... 15-20 minutes pedalling
in the day allows you to light up a room for 1 hour in the night. Want to get
one? Pedal
Generator in Action...
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In Impoverished Niger, Radio Provides
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![[MAP]](./PG_FILES/IMAGE043.GIF)
About
40 community stations have blossomed in the Niger desert after a recent
rainfall of funding from an array of aid organizations. The local DJs are
nomads and desert dwellers themselves. Music is only the background to the
childbirth advice, vaccination updates, sanitation instruction, farming tips,
candid talk on AIDS, and the occasional all-points-bulletin for lost camels.
