# Bicycle Generator - 1 hour pedaling = 24 hours electricity



## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

I know you can run a generator off of a bike and flywheel set up, but how do you get 24 hours out of 1 hour of pedaling and there is no battery or grid?

My guess is you pedal for 10 minutes and it spins for an hour. then you pedal for 10 get an hour as it spins down. Lather rinse repeat. Still you'd have to have pretty minimal needs for electricity.


----------



## BuckB (Jan 14, 2016)

Holy crap... One thing this whole prepper thing has taught me is the skills that I really need to hone. I know I can run my Country Living grain mill from a bicycle. I can run a well from a bicycle. Now I can power my home with electricity from a bicycle. The only problem is, I have not ridden a bicycle in 25 years!


----------



## I'd_last_a_day (May 12, 2015)

First of all this looks awesome! But yeah I'm not gonna get my hopes up because nothing this good can happen in reality, we're probably talking about charging a stupid cell phone or something. I'd love to know how much pedaling it would take to charge a 400 amp hour 12 volt battery. 

I wonder how much you could generate if you designed an insanely oversized flywheel? Yes I think this guy's claims are a complete load of BS, however if you work out anyway it is free electricity no matter how little


----------



## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

If it were small enough you could put it in your cabin / bol retreat and at least supplement your night time power with it. Solar by day charging batteries, then hit the bike for 30 minutes before you turn in for the night.


----------



## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

I'd_last_a_day said:


> First of all this looks awesome! But yeah I'm not gonna get my hopes up because nothing this good can happen in reality, we're probably talking about charging a stupid cell phone or something. I'd love to know how much pedaling it would take to charge a 400 amp hour 12 volt battery.
> 
> I wonder how much you could generate if you designed an insanely oversized flywheel? Yes I think this guy's claims are a complete load of BS, however if you work out anyway it is free electricity no matter how little


Oh, it wouldn't be free...
Energy isn't free. Energy is always exchanged. If you want to peddle a bike, you need to eat. Instead of your electricity coming in watts from your electric company, now it's coming in calories from your garden. The calories you spend on peddling won't be spent on other efforts. How you spend your resources will be for each man to decide.

I can't watch the vid from work, but a claim of 1 hour input to 24 hours output seems outrageous to me. Unless there's something going on in the vid that I can't imagine, it would seem to fly in the face of the laws of physics. Primarily, the conservation of energy.


----------



## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

Kauboy said:


> Oh, it wouldn't be free...
> Energy isn't free. Energy is always exchanged. If you want to peddle a bike, you need to eat. Instead of your electricity coming in watts from your electric company, now it's coming in calories from your garden. The calories you spend on peddling won't be spent on other efforts. How you spend your resources will be for each man to decide.
> 
> I can't watch the vid from work, but a claim of 1 hour input to 24 hours output seems outrageous to me. Unless there's something going on in the vid that I can't imagine, it would seem to fly in the face of the laws of physics. Primarily, the conservation of energy.


My thoughts exactly - Normally I'm against expending energy in a SHTF scenario. But if the claims are true, and they probably aren't, it would make it over the efficiency threshold for me to consider it. But in my head I keep thinking it won't generate enough juice to power a fan to keep you cool the whole time.


----------



## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

Apparently this is the guy that invented 5 hour energy drink.

One hour of pedalling can meet a rural household's electricity needs for 24 hours, including running lights, a small fan and charging a cell phone -- all without electricity bills, fuel costs or pollution, a statement issued by him said.

http://m.ndtv.com/india-news/indian...nveils-electricity-generating-bicycle-1248458


----------



## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Thanks for the link Ark!
That bike does include a battery on it.
At ~$200, it might not be a bad idea as a backup generator for small devices. You can run a handheld radio for a few minutes every day, while biking, to stay in touch with close survivors.


----------



## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

That video shows the control panel of the pedal-powered generator, and the output is 11 Volts DC at 10 Amps. That doesn't sound right to me, but I'm no electrician.

If you charge a battery at 10 amps for 1 hour, you get a 10 amp-hour charge, assuming 100% efficiency, right? A 10 amp-hour battery would discharge completely at 1/2 amp for 20 hours, right? 1/2 amp at 12 VDC = 6 watts. What can you power with 6 watts? One Christmas Tree bulb?


----------



## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

Well darn. I should have had kids.


----------



## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

From personal experience I can say it producing 100 watts for an hour is SERIOUS exercise. 
We used to test generator gear sets in my shop using a very fit guy to turn the wheel and he'd burn out after 5-10 minutes making 100 watts. You could charge a cell phone easily enough after a few hours but making enough electricity to run a 100 watt lightbulb for 30 minutes is more than most of us want to try.


----------



## ND_ponyexpress_ (Mar 20, 2016)

need to add more gears.... mechanical advantage... 1 rotation of the pedals could = x rotations on the generator the more gears and such.. the higher x goes with same force


----------



## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

ND_ponyexpress_ said:


> need to add more gears.... mechanical advantage... 1 rotation of the pedals could = x rotations on the generator the more gears and such.. the higher x goes with same force


More gearing simply slows the rotor producing less than 100 watts at a set input rpm. 100 watts is a substantial amount of energy.


----------



## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I get the feeling that if I bought one of these generating devices and complained to the company that it didn't live up to expectations they'd reply by sending me a bottle of 5 hour energy.


----------

