Category: Let's talk
Have any of you tried one of these? What did you charge with it, and how successful?
I think a pedal generator would quite obviously create more tork and do better than would a hand crank generator. Of course, we all know, it would depend upon the willpower and fitness of the human involved.
Am curious about this as I'm getting more and more involved with local emergency / disaster preparedness training exercises, and being I'm usually human-powered when it comes to my own transportation anyway, it's a lot more attractive than the stuff you see requiring car batteries.
Anyway just putting this out here in case someone's tried it. Curious what you used.
Hey, I didn't know they were really making those things.
I've often thought that would be a great source of power in an emergency.
I think I first encountered the use of a human powered generator when one was made out of an old fashioned sewing machine in "The Year of the Trivits" by John Wyndham.
Okay, it's off to google to see what's out there.
Thanks for posting.
Bob
It all depends on how much power you need. Your legs are obviously going to be able to do a lot more tork, but that won't be as portable as a hand crank generator. The link points to one I'm considering for my to go kit for my emergency training. I'm getting involved with our local version of CERT out here. Anyway one thing to remember about electricity, you don't need to crank fast and furious: you need steady and even. When I se people use those bike pedal generators rigged to try and charge their cell phones, you often see them going fast and furious. You actually waste fuel: it's all fuel, be it petroleum or candy bars. You can't beat the physics, but the newer smarter technologies are better at making each crank result in a revolution that converts to power. Less "slipping," in other words. But the good ones have a deconverter also so you won't overheat the circuits by going fast and furious. The downside is, you lose power if you try and be the hare, and not the tortoise.
I'd love a pedal unit if it could go in my to go bag. But my local requirements, since I am a pedestrian, require that I be able to carry everything.
I'd say get a pedal unit if you are setting up an in-place emergency kit, like what I would have done living at the other place. But if you are at all mobile, and involved in helping others in the community, you may want to think about a hand crank model.
Whatever you do, don't think sprinting is going to do it for you. If you stand and listen to a generator, a gas-powered one, they typically go put-put-put sort of like a fast engine idle, not vroom like a car burning rubber. Vroom would either eat up fuel for no reason, or eat up fuel for no reason and burn out circuits, if there was no deconverter and limiter in place.
So even the kind in the link above, which is supposed to be the size and shape of a 2-liter pop bottle, has this limiter technology in it. If you've ever used a spice or coffee mill, the kind you use with a hand crank, you know going really fast is not an improvement. Not energy wise. Just keep it steady and even, and you're good, not only from an energy generation sense, but you'll last longer. Especially if this is a hand crank model.
These are supposed to be ergonomic also.
I just bought it, as part of my emergency Go kit required for community response activities.
The instructions say it requires two revolutions per second. That's really not much in the way of speed, most you people probably hand crank the pencil sharpener or the spice mill way way faster than that. Plus the resistance goes down as you get into stable motion with it.
I'll have to tell you how well it works when it gets here. May try it first on the Wife's portable radio with an A/C plug. That would show in real time.
It has an actual wall socket plug.
I wouldn't run anything mechanical off of it, because if you use human power to generate electricity to then turn an electric motor, you will take a substantial loss in energy out to energy in. But powering anything electronic that is nonmechanical is a no brainer. Of course, if you stop to rest for more than a couple minutes, I would remove the device from the charger in order to prevent electrons going the other direction e.g. bleeding off the battery -- think opening the valve on a tire pump without taking the pump off the tire. Not that fast, but you get my drift.
Anway the other aspect, unlike many mechanical human-powered generators, it is set to crank in both directions so you can switch hands.
My personal opinion? We blind people depend on electronics for a lot of things now, in order to be more independent about a lot of things than we could be decades ago. Having something like this can be very useful to us during any kind of power outage or worse situation.
I payed around $77 for the product plus priority mail shipping - they charge $12 for that. Amazon was out of them so I went to the manufacturer's site at the link above.
It has good reviews. The only problem with it, is not with itself. But some people have challenges because the infamous Alex Jones has sponsored it on his Prison Planet or Info Wars, or whichever. To me that makes no difference, but to some it does, apparently.