People send me stuff. This story is making the rounds on Facebook. From Goods Home Design:
60 Minutes On This Bicycle Can Power Your Home For Twenty-Four Hours
Wouldn’t it be great to power your home without having enormous costs to starting a journey on the alternative road? Now, you can achieve that and also take care of your figure! The founder of the Free Electric hybrid bike, Manoj Bhargava, says that his invention uses mechanical energy in the most basic way in order to transform an hour of exercise into supplying rural household with energy for 24 hours. The mechanism is simple: when you pedals, a flywheel is put in action, which turns the generator and thus charging a battery. What better motivation to work out from now on than to power your own home without any costs whatsoever? Watch the video featured to see the bike in action.
Riiiiight.
That idea is not only ridiculous – it is impossible. Normal human metabolism produces heat at a basal metabolic rate of around 80 watts. During a bicycle race, an elite cyclist can produce close to 400 watts of mechanical power over an hour.
A regular person, who isn’t an elite muscular cyclist, might manage half that. The dead-giveaway is in the video itself, where you see the wattmeter displayed while the inventor is cycling peaking at about 274 watts:
Then there is the separate dead-giveaway shot of the voltmeter and ammeter:
From basic electricity, Power = Volts times amps (P=EI) Do the math: 12 volts x 10 amps = 120 watts.
So, at it’s best it might produce 400 watts for an hour is 0.4 kilowatt-hour. More likely the average person will produce 0.2 kilowatt-hour in one hour. At the 0.2 kWh rate, if you cycled 24 hours, you’d produce 4.8 kilowatt-hours
Look at your electric bill and note how many kilowatt-hours you used in a month, and then tell me you can keep up with that, especially in the summer when you need air-conditioning.
According to the EIA, in 2017, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential home customer was 10,399 kilowatt hours (kWh), an average of 867 kWh per month.
That works out to 28.9 kilowatt-hours per day. Compare that to the 4.8 kilowatt-hours per day you’d produce if you were able to cycle on this generator bike 24 hours a day.
The entire idea is laughable, much like the sure to fail (and it did) “solar roads” idea of three years ago. Even Treehugger called it a complete flop.
But given how innumerate the public is these days (math is hard), surely some eco-dupe will buy the generator bike thinking they can power their entire home and are “saving the planet” by “going green”.
Even if the idea was originally to help poor people who have no electricity, there’s this set of complications (from a commenter on the YouTube video):
Antediluvian Atheist
Uh, if people are too poor to afford electricity, theyA: Can’t afford this gizmo,
B: probably don’t have enough use for the electricity,
C: This thing cannot run a fridge or freezer, which is a major use,
D: And people THAT poor probably don’t have the spare calories.
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BUUUUUT…
It would be enough energy to run a 20W LED bulb for 10 hours
What more could the energy conscious GREEN individual possibly need more energy for???
Perhaps if you attached 10 flywheels (and had enough gumption to get them ALL spinning) and 10 batteries you could include a small apartment sized refer and possibly a 3″ TV
I have an old modified chainsaw with a V pulley that I keep around in the back of the pick-up truck so that in an emergency I can jerry rig it up to my alternator if I am stuck and broke down where I live fairly remotely and at least charge the battery to get myself out of a jackpot. But it really does take some time revving that chainsaw to get any serious amps into the battery.
I also had the same sort of contraption set-up on an old bicycle 40 years ago when I was living with kerosene lamps in my trappers cabin and a single 12V battery for an old 9″ CRT TV that took 1.2 amps…about 15-16 watts. And a transistor radio which was much more forgiving. A 25 watt light bulb was a waste of electricity. It sure made me appreciate how much electricity is valued, and I rarely fell asleep with the TV or it was dead battery in the morning. In a pinch, in a power outage, maybe…just to charge the cell phone so I can keep reading WUWT. But then a solar panel would do that too…but now I need to lose weight. Maybe if everyone had to pedal for their electricity demand, they would get a better understanding of what and how much electricity we really consume and why wind and solar will never cut it.
It certainly would be a good teaching aid.
Maybe not not everyone, but maybe just all the people who demand we eliminate fossil fuels. And everyone in Hollywood.
About 30 years ago my family visited an open-air museum in North Wales. There were wind generators of various designs where we could compare the outputs for the same wind. Various solar set-up (PV, direct heating and concentrated heating) Again the wattage output was demonstrated.
What most interested the children was a bicycle fixed to a generator. Since my eldest son (aged about 14 years) was a keen cyclist he had a ride. We were all amazed at the puny output even though he was pedaling furiously. After 2 minutes he had to give up.
We all learned the lesson that day about the amount or energy we could save by switching off lights, etc.
CAT Machynlleth. Near me.
A suggested teaching tool—Cure for Teenage Climate Activism:
I’ve mentioned here more than once that I grew up in rural Perthshire without the benefit of electricity. Anything that brings even a minimal amount of electricity to communities without is a good thing. Back in 1950s/60s/70s I’d have been truely grateful for a few LED lights round the house. The over hyping of this particular development doesn’t alter the fact that just giving artificial lights and enough power for a doctors surgery and a school would be a quantum leap forward for many rural deprived communities. Modern technology makes this possible. Let’s not confused modern Western individual power requirements with those of a deprived third world community. Any cost effect improvement however small by western standards is an improvement. Communial access to modern communications is still access to them.
My solar PV garden lights run through the night most nights even at this time of year. A modernised version of the 19th century horsemill* powered by an Ox or Horse with battery would cover the needs of many communities.
*Many redundant horsemills were used as storage in the late 20th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_mill
Mr. Vorlich: If a “modernized” horse mill would cover the needs of many communities, how is it that they are not already installed? In many, or some, or even a single community? Deprived communities don’t have horses or oxen? Given your backround, why aren’t you making money supplying horse-drawn generators to these communities? You sound just like the green promoters.
My exercise bike says it generates about 70 watts with steady pedaling. (140 watts with fast pedaling but you get tired pretty quickly).
So 60 minutes of cycling would just about produce enough electricity to boil the water for a cup of tea!
FWIW – most exercise bikes and treadmills overstate the wattage, distance, speed by about 20%.
The exercise bike at the gym will show that I went 30-31 miles in 55 minutes, whereas, my typical distance in 60 minutes (out doors) is 21-22 miles.
treadmills have similar errors
Some of that difference may actually be real, due to the lack of wind resistance when you’re on an exercise machine.
Why not connect the “Free Electric hybrid bike” up to your electric car and not only throw out the battery but also save energy from the grid?
A very “sustainable” way to power your car.
Cheers
Roger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq7noaMwLfg
Kinda like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWDR7KbleA0
Or how about this instead
Looks like it’s powered by the One World Government Coudenhove Kalergi plan.*
*Based on the ‘typical family’ opening photo…
Didn’t someone demo a Bicycle powered shower that needed 72 people pedaling to supply the energy needed for a single shower?
Seen this before and great demonstration of how much power a typical home requires in an average day. A typical electrically powered, on-demand, tankless shower in the UK are rated at about 8Kw – 9Kw. IIRC, you see in the video cyclists simply run out of energy to keep the power demands on supply up.
By the time his shower was done, there were 72 other people that also needed showers. They would require 72 x 72 = 5184 new cyclists needed for the next 72 showers. Then 5184 x 5184 = 26,873,856 new peddlers would be needed after which you have an insufficient supply of peddlers to keep the process going
Thank you Mr Ponzi
AAAAAAAAAAAY
That’s Ponzerelli
Bryan
BBC Doco that destroys the myth. 78 cyclist needed.
Also view…You Tube Can You Power A House With A Bicycle? 2016.
I am surprised that BBC have not taken their doco down…
This method with the 72 cyclists is working fine if you want to have a shower. But what about if you want to go water skiing? How many rowers do you need?
You can successfully water ski behind 8 rowers.
Does the fool realize what power consumption of Electric Stove/Oven and Dryers requires, for a single use?
My Dryer use 230 Volts 30 Amps, Furnace 230 Volts, 60 Amps, Range 230 Volts, 40 Amps
His Unicorn Brand Power Bike can’t even produce power enough to keep ANY them running, in real time!
I have a solar cloths dryer. It’s cheep to buy and cheep to run.
Won’t do any good in the winter around here, where the average daytime high temperature is well below 0C.
Come on! You don’t want your clothes freeze dried?
That’s how my Mom dried clothes. It even worked in cold weather. (sublimation)
We got the Electric drier just before I went to high school.
Sunshine still had quite a bit to do with it.
Mom said she liked to go out side and get some fresh air and sunshine.
You will notice we eventually acquired a drier.
Except when it’s raining
6 deg F (approx -14.4 C for others) this morning and that is not considered cold.
thats a decent morning.
try drying clothes outside in that.
If you are a moron…this is a great idea…or, you could work for one hour and you can easily afford power for one day, inc. aircon. There, problem solved, when do I get my Noble Prize?
“If you are a moron…this is a great idea…or”
This the kind of project our Green Loon Quebec Politician Luc Ferrandez would go for !
Remember him ? He was the guy that was glad the Corona Virus was killing peoples and slowing those dangerous emissions in China.
When he was Mayor of the “Plateau” Township in Montreal, he waged a merciless war against cars.
Changed the streets to random one way to deter driving in that sector.
During our harsh Winters, he even had the cycle paths plowed before the street !
But as most business closed or went away, so he had to resign his job.
Now, he is only a lunatic blogger. Causing less damage that way…
That’s why your idea fails in the real world. It involves work!
Oh; peddling a bicycle looks like work too. OK, double fail!
It is hilarious because if this was really true, every home in America would have a power generating bike or two in it, and started doing this over 50 years ago……
Or if you live in Barbie’s 3-story dream townhouse.
Gee… Why not just hook up an electric motor to drive it and get free power forever? (sarc)
Brilliant Paul! You are a genius. You win the Nobel Prize for energy creation from thin air. It’ll be presented by St Greta of Truancy.
I’m stealing the “St. Greta of Truancy” line – classic.
Actually, there are hundreds of, obviously bogus, videos on YouTube that claim to be able to generate free power by using two motors, one used as a “generator” and the other used to drive the “generator” with plenty of hotglue and…magnets…in addition to those in the motors.
I thought about this type generation as a kid when I had a generator on the front wheel of a bike that lighted the head light on the bicycle. The bike came this way. But years later in school I found out about back EMF.
Reminds me of Breaking Bad; Walt and Jesse stuck in the desert hand cranking a generator to charge the RV battery –
Hey, this sad joke would be a good revealing tracing indicator on how massively ignorance outnumbers knowledge. Which is what green science public is all about.
Ban dihydrogen monoxide!
If you had a rural home in an Indian or African village then this might work (with battery storage) to run a couple of efficient LED lights while it’s dark – no bad thing. But a single solar panel plus said battery would be a lot cheaper I think.
You would want to compare that to solar panels and batteries, which should work well in the tropics.
IF you could get them out of the shadows of the vegetation…
That’s what agent orange is for silly!
Why use people power when they have cattle and oxen. I’m sure that they can generate 10 – 20x what a human can generate. [ isn’t 1 horse power = 746 watts ?]
Besides they could get the animals to work for a lot more hours, maybe 10-15….it probably beats plowing a field.!
Then there is this:
http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.html
So minimum lighting & refrigeration with something like this & a battery for a couple of hours & also it is exercize, but how do you heat & cool & cook?
he didnt look very comfortable pedalling it either
reclining positions pretty daft
but yeah for someone with no power to run leds..but then a solar cell would do the same trickle charging all day, well in summer clear skies anyway
It’ll never work. Maybe a giant hamster wheel…
Michael Mann’s wrist.
No, Mann is occupied cranking something else.
Maybe his pinky and thumb.
The greens who positively hate poor people so they are always going on about the poor being the worst victims of climate change. The poor are the worst victims of what is planned for ‘resolving’ the fantasy climate change problem.
Look at all the Green Jobs that this will create.
The problems of this can be solved with a bunch of serfs. Of course, the only ones to benefit will be our enlightened green leaders and their cronies. They will be comfortable while the peasants keep rowing to power their lifestyle. Don’t laugh. People are capable of horrible atrocities. Some people have more sympathy for a stranger’s dog than for another person.
“People are capable of horrible atrocities.” cf Auchwitz, liberated 75 years ago this week
Only use can only be for LED lightning and mobilephone charger, and a portable CD player or radio. But who needs that 24/7 ?
We’ve already seen this movie, where your electricity came from riding a stationary bike.
And dinner was your neighbor. It was called “Soylent Green”.
And that was intended to be a dystopia.
These days, it’s a green playlist.
A very Soylient point
Every cloud has a silver lining….
Let the MSM run with this – the harsh realities of physics would then become wider known as more and more people for to realise the energy impossibility of it.
And then they would start to question wind turbines and solar and other “miracle cures “
Muppets …..
I have a mental image of a tiny air conditioner. The extra heat you generate pedaling would more than offset any air conditioning you could get.
It’s kinda the opposite of what happens when you fall into cold water. If you flail around trying to keep warm, you will only increase your cooling rate. Physics is indeed a harsh mistress.
During a bicycle race, an elite cyclist can produce close to 400 watts of mechanical power over an hour.
One advantage is only, in contrast to a normal bicycle is, you have less resistance as on street and you have a better transmission to the generator and that flywheel.
Wasn’t there a flap about this device a couple years ago? I don’t have time to check right now.
I recall a story about a guy who hooked something like this up to the TV. Kids could only watch TV when cranking pedals pretty hard. TV is about 150 watts per hour.
I remember that story or one like it. Kids were couch potatoes so parents converted their TV to battery powered, kids got exercise if they wanted to watch TV. They would pre charge the battery then ride while watching to keep up the charge as much as possible. Kids quickly lost weight and thought long and hard about what shows were a must see.
Yes. And I don’t have time to check either but I think the dude promoting this scam is the 5 Hour Energy guy.
A prediction from the movie ‘Soylent Green’ in the 70’s. LOL, hollywood.
Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren once in power as President of USA can make these mandatory for those will all electric vehicles. Then their sympathetic legislators pass regulations that only permit charging them at home. After a few months of experience maybe a number of the people using these will fit carrying bags on to a bike & just peddle around.
In the past people have linked exercise bikes to supply electricity to a television, the idea being that the kids could only watch as much telly as they were prepared to work for. It never caught on commercially.
This makes as much sense as using human beings floating in a solution as giant batteries.
And that works well. I saw it in a documentary starring Keanu Reeves.
Not mention the extreme danger of that fly wheel popping lose and doing a war dance around the room in the midst of you cranking away for all you’re worth to keep it spun up.
Cheers
Max
It was bad enough when I ejected a CD from a computer’s drive and it came out still under full speed. Dodging that was spooky.
Maybe they should use this in jails. The amount and quality of food one receives could be directly proportional to the amount of power they generate. Top 10 get ice cream after dinner.
Many years ago I remember the fad to have a little generator bolted to the front fork, spun by your front bicycle wheel/tire, that would power the bikes tiny flashlight level headlight and taillight at dusk/night. About an inch in diameter by maybe three inches long.
I used to bike to school up and down a few hundred feet of several hills, about 3 miles each way, on a then ‘fancy’ three gear. (Higher gearing did not yet exist for popular consumption, most bikes were still one speed. My present bikes (1 mountain and 2 street) are all 3×5 fifteen gear now standard derailers.) Reason was afterschool sports so no afternoon bus home, plus, extra cardio for track. So my parents bought me one of these ‘new’ little generators so would always have light independent of the equivalent alkaline disposable C battery under the seat that surely eventually dies.
Bad idea. Exhausting, increased pedal work at least 25 percent. And if you needed the low ‘1’ gear for the hill climbs , it meant you were eventually walking the bike up the hill on busy roads in the winter dark after afterschool sports activities. Bad situation. Threw it out after 2 days. Rigged up a spare fresh C battery holder under the seat instead to make parents happy.
Anthony’s math is correct. Been there, done that.
Yeah I had one like that in the 1970’s, remember trying to reduce the pushing pressure of the small generator wheel against the bike wheel.
It wasn’t a fad. Dynamos for bike lights use very little energy and millions of people still use them.
I had one as a kid. You had to keep going pretty fast to generate any light. Maybe nowadays you could replenish a rechargeable battery.