BS: Free electricity from humans!

Subject: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 02:21 AM

joHn from Hull's resurrected thread on hamster power gave me an idea - human treadmill power. Somebody could work out how much electricity could be generated by a person at say one hour on a manual treadmill at an average speed of 3 mph, and we could call that one treadmill-hour, or 1TH. TH's could be credited against your home electric bill, maybe.

Or, at the health club - membership is $15/month or 5 TH.

Or make it a "community service" option like picking up trash or volunteering at a youth center - you could be sentenced instead to 100 hours on the giant treadmill down at the power plant.

Or quid pro quo help for the homeless - one TH gets you a hot shower, a hot meal, and a bed for the night.

Musicians could try to accumulate MH instead, an MH being a music-hour - i.e. an hour spent playing music to entertain the treadmill walkers and keep them walking at a steady pace. Of course, if you were of a mind to play music that had people walking at a 4 or 4.5 mph pace, they could actually generate 1EH in less than an hour, "real" time, and that would be an excellent thing...

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 06:50 AM

Yes, I have always believed that electricity should be free!

Free the Electron!

BTW, at Expo 88 in brisbane there was a display that allowed you to pedal a bike linked to a generator - max normal humans could produce for a minute or two before collapse was about 40-60 watts....

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 09:45 AM

The human brain produces electricity all the time. Wire a whole bunch of brains that aren't otherwise doing anything together and use the resulting electricity to power something important, like a hospital.

Such brains can be found in Canberra, Washington DC, London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Ottawa, and similar lowlife hangouts. State and Provincial capitols are also fertile grounds.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: Pied Piper
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 11:20 AM

The human body puts out around 100W of heat all the time so you're already contributing to your heating needs.

PP

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: GUEST,Larry K
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 11:29 AM

I work for a large electrical utility and at trade shows we have a bike that generates electricity.    Most people have trouble lighting a single light bulb.

In vermont, they have started a new program called "Cow Power" which generates electricity from cow poop.   I am not making this up.   As Yogi would say "you can look it up"

My company is one of the largest bio mass producers in the world.   We have 37 plants which make 75 Mega watts of electricity from landfills.   A mega watt is a million watts.   Biomass is a very viable form of energy and fairly economical when planned for in advance when building a landfill.

With cow poop and garbage, who needs electricity from humans.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 11:46 AM

Too bad. I had such high hopes. What's needed then is something along the lines of a lever - ie something that could translate a relatively small amount of effort into a more impressive outcome.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 12:42 PM

I just had a thought and a question - a few years ago my husband bought a radio and a very large flashlight for his Emergency Preparedness Kit - both of them operate on human power. On the radio I think you crank a handle, and on the flashlight I believe you have to squeeze something repeatedly, but on both of them roughly 5-15 minutes of fairly easy effort provide an hour or several hours of battery life. How does this equate with the herculean effort of lighting up a 60 watt lightbulb on a bicycle? Bear in mind that I never studied electricity in school, or after - if possible, use simple words and type slowly :)

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: mg
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 03:57 PM

I read about some vat in India where they put the collective cow poop and got maybe methane...surely it can and is being done.

I think we absolutely have to look at our garbage situation and our fueld situation as opposite sides of the same coin. I think garbage needs to be taken care of by separation of components, burning, composting for methane or whatever rather than burying it...can you think of the toxic mess that is going on, under great pressure from the coverings..the diseases that could be brewing from all the cat litter and baby diapers? I think absolutely for sure that they could make a car that runs on old baby diapers...

And I think that cows and their methane problems have led to a series of other problems..not least of which is the decreasing health of Americans, many of whom are of Northern European descent and therefore probably co-evolved with dairy products...so we need all these cows, we need good healthy dairy products from grass-fed cows, and if the experts say that nature can't take care of all the manure from reasonably housed cattle, we need to turn the manure into fuel. It's not new technology...can't they make methane cars?

mg

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: Bert
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 04:17 PM

It shouldn't be too difficult to light a bulb with man power. A reasonably fit person can generate about 1/4 HP fairly continuously. Which is just under 200 watts. It must have been either a very inefficient machine or one that was poorly geared.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 04:18 PM

Something that occurred to me recently about the "problem" of methane created by cattle --

...the USDA Census of Agriculture for July 23, 2004 estimated that there were 103.6 million head of cattle in the US. In the 17th Century it is estimated that 60 million bison (Bison bison, a/k/a buffalo) roamed the US. Both are ruminants, i.e., cud chewers, and belong to the Bovidae family. If there's a methane problem from cattle, shouldn't there have been one from bison?

And yes, I recognize the difference in herd sizes.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 04:20 PM

I was thinking the same thing, Bert - as they make those little hand-piumped flashlights - which many people can keep going for quite a while - and leg muscles are stronger and more used to continous activity.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: pdq
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 04:33 PM

Check out this unit from

   The C. Crane Co.

The radio takes about 1 min of "winding up" for each 30 min of play, I believe. It uses a sophisticated "Baylis" generator unit.

The light is an extremely efficient type based on high output LEDs. Equals the output of a normal flashlight.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 05:24 PM

Electricity IS practically free in Cuba. So are a high school and university education, modern medical care, housing and a number of other things....either free or very, very inexpensive.

All that will end abruptly, of course, when "liberty and freedom" arrive (along with McDonald's, KFC, and the United Sugar Company)! :-) Ha, ha.

Your idea is quite appealing, Sue.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 09:19 PM

I have a similar radio, solar powered, or handcranked and rechargeable with nicads. It also works as a flashlight.

also theres a fascinating calculation on hubberts peak site
http://www.hubbertpeak.com

Consider: the sunlight that intersects the earth in 24 hours is more energy than all the conventional oil that has been or ever will be extracted..

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: pdq
Date: 24 Aug 04 - 10:55 PM

Here is a bio of

   Trevor Baylis

inventor of the Freeplay Radio. This article says 30 sec of wind-up and the radio will play for 1 hour.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Aug 04 - 12:28 AM

I dunno, some folkie musos will play for ever if you wind them up properly...

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 25 Aug 04 - 12:39 AM

What a cool guy. Thanks for the link. I really think it could be quite trendy, somewhere down the line - maybe someday everyone will have a solar panel on their roof, a windmill in their backyard, a composting toilet in their bathroom, a back-up generator that runs on used vegetable oil in the garage, and an electricity generating treadmill in the family room. The treadmill could be hooked up to the TV, and we could give our TV watching kids a new definition of the expression pay-per-view.

Who ran on the slogan "A chicken in every pot" ? Maybe the next "environmental" candidate for prez will get him/herself elected on the slogan "A solar panel on every roof". But I digress.


The thing about treadmill power, is it could tackle two problems at one time - the search for alternative energy, and the much-touted "epidemic" of obesity in America.

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: mg
Date: 25 Aug 04 - 12:53 AM

we absolutely must look at individual energy systems...every middle class at least family should have some way of generating their own energy...mg

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: Naemanson
Date: 25 Aug 04 - 01:53 AM

First the hamsters and now the humans. We really need to free the electricity from everyone who wants to keep it captive. Are they holding it hostage?

Free the electricity! Save the whales! Hug a tree!

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 25 Aug 04 - 02:42 AM

LOL. What if I save a tree and hug a whale, instead? I've always found whales to be incredibly sensual...

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Aug 04 - 06:07 AM

It has been said elsewhere that a human can generate an output of 100 Watts. You want to try cycling at that pace for how long? It takes considerable mental focus to sustain that sort of output - I don't think you will be able to focus on what you are watching on TV for long - just ask any Marathon Runner...

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: GUEST,SueB
Date: 25 Aug 04 - 10:54 AM

Subject: RE: BS: Free electricity from humans!
From: Bert
Date: 25 Aug 04 - 04:29 PM

just under 200 Watts here