Had what may be called an epiphany in my imsomniatic sleep last night. Why not use people power to run a generator? Now I know that this has been done before - but only on a small scale. IE: using a bicycle to power a generator, etc. What I'm thinking is using gravity and leverage to create a HUGE mechanical advantage to spin a very large and heavy flywheel, geared up to a generator (was thinking something along the lines of a micro-hydro generator). Now if the gearing is done properly, I can't see why with a little bit of effort, the generator should spin for a full day or so. I'm thinking of something along the lines of an elevator....maybe 3-5 stories high - hook it all up to a transmission that will not let you fall too terribly fast and be enough for a minimum of 200lbs to spin the flywheel. Whip up a second elevator cage so it goes up as you go down - then just climb up a simple staircase and go for another ride - do this 2-4 times and you have your power for the day - and some damn good exercise :)
anyone have any thoughts on this? Actually, what i would be most interested in, is if anyone has experience setting up gearboxes that would allow an elevator device like this to function....
Thanks!
nighwynd
You would have to climb a lot of stairs.
The formula:
Energy= Mass x Gravityacceleration x Heightdifference
tells it all.
If you have a weight of 100 Kg ( pretty fat !)
and go 10 Meters up you have the potential energy:
100 kg x 10 x 10 Meters= 10.000 Joules= 10.000 Wattseconds= 2.7 Watthours.
This means you can then just light a 2.7 Watts Bulb for 1 Hour with it...
if the conversion to electrical energy would be 100 % efficient...which is not...
climb 100 Meters and you could light a 27 Watts bulb for 1 hour only...
You see, pretty exhausting for a human to generate power this way...
well there goes that theory....dang...I would think that you could somehow work in some kind of mechanical advantage to do more work over that distance - I mean, a 200lb weight falling 20 feet has to be able to do some amazing ammounts of work doesn't it?
@nightwynd
No,
even less than 2.7 Watthours...
Just use the above formula and it tells you all..
This is the maximum available energy from a falling weight.