Bicycle Generator - demonstrates pedal power

A bicycle powered generator built at Cabrillo College with help from a National Science Foundation grant and students Frank Aidnik, Cory Dominguez, and Luis Sonsino. It can power either 12 VDC or 110 VAC appliances. We use it to teach energy science. You can see detailed photos at http://picasaweb.google.com. (Search for Cabrillo College Energy Bike.) For more information, contact John Welch at the Cabrillo College Physics Dept.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• generator
• bicycle
• power
• alternative
• green
• Cabrillo
• College
• energy
• bike

[Shumaka84]

sorry if it is a stupid question... but can you attach a battery (for example a car battery) so you charge it and then have energy??

[maitland1007]

You sure can. We didn't in this case because we wanted students to see that when they stop pedaling the lights go out.

[Shumaka84]

@maitland1007 but if you do that isn't there a risk that the battery overloads or so? what can we do to make the output with a safe voltage to charge for example a laptop

[maitland1007]

The only kind of battery you would want to connect would be one that is matched to the generator, in this case a 12V battery like a car battery. To not overcharge the battery, you would either just carefully watch the voltage, or get a charge controller. To charge something like a laptop battery, you would want to use an inverter like we show running the TV in the video, and just plug your laptop into the outlet on the inverter.

[jujutube123]

Hey man. What kind of Alternator are you using? Is it a car alt? What RPM and how much Amp you are generating? It sounds like a low RPM altornator.

[maitland1007]

It's a permanent magnet motor. It puts out up to 20 ish A at 12 V DC. Look at the link to pictures in 'more info' for more details.

[sbflash311]

One way to store energy is to take a power-pack jump-kit (like a Prestone Jump-It) and plug it into an inverter. Hook the inverter to the batter (they usually come with clips to hook them to battery) and wait until the green light shows on the power pack signifying it's topped off with energy.

[expatted]

please send some to occupy wall st

[luvmyfisherman]

I absolutely love this! Maybe one day I'll get it together and build something like this for the house!

[dazlari]

Nice demo. What are the major contributors to the noise being made in this set up? What potential is there to reduce or eliminate it?

[gplus46]

go soylent green!

[legalyzefreed0m]

what a good weight loss plan... You want to watch tv? Charge it up first!

[MiIesTailsPrower]

@O1Z

Technically, you could charge any rechargeable battery with it, so long as you use a charge controller and a voltage that matches your batteries. I use 12 volt sealed lead acid batteries, 3 of them in parallel.

[O1Z]

Ahha was just about to write something saying this, what is the biggest battery or batteries you could charge on this

[O1Z]

Ahha was just about to write something saying this, what is the biggest battery or batteries you could charge on this