Behold a human powered gym being powered by a spin class in Paris!
A well-conditioned cyclist can produce about 400 watts of mechanical power for an hour or more, but adults of good average fitness average between 50 and 150 watts for an hour of vigorous exercise.
Manoj Bhargava has created a human-powered generator. The generator, called the Free Electric, that can power a rural household running 24 lights and a fan, while charging a phone, for a day, all from an hour’s work by a single individual.
watts can:
Blender/Food Processor (400 Watts) 1 hour/week
Coffee Maker (894 Watts) one hour/day
Dishwasher (1,200 Watts) one hour/day
Microwave Oven (1,450 W) 30 min./day
Freezer 15 Cu. Ft. (341 W.) 12 hrs/day 124
Refrigerator – 14 Cu. Ft. (440 W.) 12 hrs/day
What is a watt anyway?
Electricity usage is calculated in kilowatt-hours. A kilowatt-hour is 1,000 watts used for one hour. As an example, a 100-watt light bulb operating for ten hours would use one kilowatt-hour.
What is on the cutting edge?
Princeton University engineers have developed a device that may change the way that we power many of our smaller gadgets and devices. By using our natural body movement, they have created a small chip that will actually capture and harness that natural energy to create enough energy to power up things such as a cell phone, pacemaker and many other small devices that are electronic.
The chip is a combination of rubber and ceramic nanoribbons. When the chip is flexed, it generates electrical energy. How will this be put to use? Think of rubber soled shoes that have this chip embedded into them and every time a step is taken, energy is created and stored. Just the normal walking around inside the office during a normal work day would be enough to keep that cell phone powered every day.
This chair knits you a warm hat! Using the energy generated by simply kicking back and relaxing, the “Rocking-Knit” draws yarn from a spool and knits it into a hat right above your head.
A washing machine, a blender, and a socket. The later is soccer ball by day and a light all night.
The Pavegen tiles were designed for streets, schools, squares where lots of people walk as it transforms kinetic energy of your steps into electricity. The electricity generated can be used for powering up street lamps, to keep advertisement lamp boxes on, and more.
Beth Klein 