Exercise with an Energy Purpose

May 9th, 2011 by Glenn Meyers

Source: OneWorld.net

One do-it-yourself benchmark for this era is the ongoing discovery of new methods for producing electricity.

One such invention is not only affordable it provides a great way to spend idle time while producing clean and portable electricity that can be used. Called the Pedal-a-Watt, this stationary bicycle stand that generates electricity while functioning as a sound fitness device.

The bicycle power-generation stand has been created by Convergence Technologies, based in Pleasantville, NY. The power the stand generates can be used for lights or other small appliances, such as laptops, cell phones, fluorescent or LED lights.

On its website, Convergence Technologies states that any bicycle in decent shape can be used with the Pedal-A-Watt Stand because the stand will adjust to fit any wheel size including children’s bikes.

The average rider can produce between 125 and 300 watts using the Pedal-A-Watt. While this amount of power isn’t huge, many pieces of equipment draw very little power and can be powered for long spans of time with small amounts of electricity. A laptop, for example, draws 70 watts, meaning one 20-minute workout could run the laptop for over an hour.

According to Convergence Technologies, the Pedal-A-Watt comes with the bicycle stand, generator, a 20-amp blocking diode, an adjustment knob and instructions for use. The company says its Pedal-A-Watt is built with off-the-shelf components to reduce waste and weighs 23 pounds.

The assembled Pedal-A-Watt sells for $399. The company also sells other products of interest, such as a bright LED light strip that is a great visual demonstration for the classroom or a corporate event.

This information from Convergence Technologies will help in understanding the device’s capacity:

First, the difference between watts and watt-hours: If a person is pedaling and creating 200 watts of power and he or she keeps pedaling for 2 hours, that person will create 400 Watt-Hours, or 200 watts x 2 hours = 400 watt-hours. This means a person can power:

A 400-watt TV for 1 hour
A 200-watt TV for 2 hours
A 20-watt laptop PC for 20 hours
A 15-watt fluorescent bulb for almost 27 hours

Here is the power consumption for typical appliances:

Small TV 100 watts
Large TV 200 watts
Laptop PC 10 watts
Desktop PC 75 watts
Stereo 20 watts
Charging a cell phone 5 watts
High-efficiency desk lamp 15 watts
Refrigerator 700 watts
Dishwasher 350 watts
Dryer 400 watts

This makes an appealing solution for those people who don’t want to be completely grid-dependent.

Source: Convergence Technologies

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Tags: Convergence Technologies, Electricity consumption, Kilowatt hour, laptop, light-emitting diode, Pedal-a-Watt, portable electricity, television, watt

About the Author

Glenn Meyers is a writer, producer, and director. Meyers was editor and site director of Green Building Elements, a contributing writer for CleanTechnica, and is founder of Green Streets MediaTrain, a communications connection and eLearning hub. As an independent producer, he's been involved in the development, production and distribution of television and distance learning programs for both the education industry and corporate sector. He also is an avid gardener and loves sustainable innovation.

http://profiles.google.com/thejbills Jesse Williams

One comment. The power mentioned for a refrigerator is too high by about an order of magnitude. I have a Kill-A-Watt meter and I’ve measured all my appliances. Maybe, a very large fridge could run 700 W when it is actually chilling, but most of the time it is idle. So the average power consumption of a fridge is far less that 100 W.
Frank Hanlan

I would love to see an exercise gym set up with a number of machines that could generate power just as a number of hotels have set up similar machines.
Frank Hanlan

I would love to see an exercise gym set up with a number of machines that could generate power just as a number of hotels have set up similar machines.
- Marz62
  
  Yes, this is the future of personal renewable energy — harnessing kinetic energy through electro-dynamo technology:
  
  I agree with the previous poster regarding exercise gyms, etc. In fact, I had proposed this idea formally (scalable to accommodate larger membership and network capacity) in a “disruptive innovation” business plan for generating not only in-house power needs, but also surplus (feed-in tariff type) energy to earn energy credits or monetary equivalents (or even establishing an alternative unit of exchange). The idea was rejected.
  
  If anyone would like to discuss this idea, or my business plan, contact me through this site or planetsave.com
  
  Michael Ricciardi