Too crazy, or just crazy enough to work

[juspot82]

Not really sure how it applies, but why not just good old human power. I realize that some members of society may not be able bodied enough to perform the required work, but there are a good many that are able.

I guess the question here is, with proper gearing, would it be possible to make a decently sized generator that you crank for maybe 5-10 minutes every couple of hours?

I know it's a low power example, but you can buy a shakelight that you spend a few minutes shaking or cranking and get a decent amount of use for your effort. Why not scale it up with some mechanical help.

It's not technically free since you're the one doing the work, but surely something could be geared up so that the minimal effort you put in turning a crank could produce a sizeable amount of torque/power. Even if you need a gearbox to start off at a lower gear and then bump it up once you get a heavy flywheel moving and really put some power to it. It doesn't have to produce steady power all day long, it just needs to put out a good charge to replace what you've used in the past couple hours.

Personally if I could power all or some of my home by doing some exercise every few hours it would be worth it. I'd benefit in a healthier me and a lower electric bill.

The idea sparked from an article I read about an engineering student that built a see saw for kids in Africa to play on that produces power for the school.

[fritznien]

a fit person can produce about a horsepower, if you want to go over an hour
at a time your going to need to be really fit.
my last electric bill was 15 kwhrs per day.
how much do you use?
fritznien

[WilbyInebriated]

my last electric bill was 15 kwhrs per day.
how much do you use?
frightening

you use 15kwhrs per day? that is frightening... are you al gore?

[fritznien]

you use 15kwhrs per day? that is frightening... are you al gore?

damn spell check changed my name.
fritznien

[juspot82]

Regardless of how much we use per day, my question is how much can a person produce with minimal effort.

Say you take a very heavy flywheel and start it up with some gearing and no load. Then once you have it up to speed you can adjust the gears and start adding a load to it. Once you get it up to speed it shouldn't take as much effort to keep it up, mainly just counteracting the losses.