Pedal powered wind setup

[yakas]

I am moving into a trailer in the mountains and want to build a patio with a built in bench that has 2 pedaling stations. I have seen the pedal generators that use the resistance to create the electricity, my question is would there be any benefit to using the wind turbine's magnet/coil at the end of a pedal powered setup vs. the resistance setup? I would like to set up the gears to be really high so you could get to a very fast rpm. Also have the magnets/coils attached to heavy concrete wheels so once it is moving at a high speed there would be a lot of kinetic energy keeping it rotating thus making it easier to sustain high rpm's on top of the fact that there is very little resistance. Also the addition of a 2nd opposing bike could double the rpm's. I just want to see if this has been done before or if anyone has any input?

Thanks a million

[AbyssUnderground]

Pedal power can only give you about 100 watts of power for as long as the person pedaling can keep it up, which will be quite hard for long periods of time.

[yakas]

Can't you store the energy?

Is the 100 watts max based off of the available kits for sale?

The idea behind it is to not have the resistance in the pedaling action because you are using the magnet/coil setup which will be balanced and easy to spin. I imagine sitting on my deck in a comfortable reclined position for a long time enjoying the view and making power. I guess it is important to know what needs to be powered, which will consist of a laptop, stereo, LED lighting and perhaps a couple larger bulbs, and not to much else.

[Bruce S]

There is a guy on here who's built his own. FrankG did a very good write up about what he did and has real-life experience with his.

google for his posting about a pedal gen.

That should help

Cheers

Bruce S

[feral air]

The 100watts figure is what someone figured a "normal" person can make pedaling all-out (5 minutes and you're beat). 75watts is closer to what a "normal" person can sustain. I don't know who defined "normal" but them's the numbers.

If you bike a lot and have a good machine, you can probably almost double those numbers. Sustain 125watts, burst 200watts or more. I've heard of one person hitting over 300watts...but that's basically Lance Armstrong level as far as I'm concerned.

I like the pedgens that use the back wheel as a giant pulley - it's just oh-so-simple. Run a big belt around the wheel (sans tire) and connect it to a good treadmill motor and you should be good to light some lights. take it easy

[ZooT]

Quote: Is the 100 watts max based off of the available kits for sale?

Er uh......kits?

And yeah.....it might be easy to spin until it hits cut-in......then the battery puts a load on the generator, and it's not easy to spin....

That's what folks around here refer to as "stall"......when windturbine blades(or human legs) can't make enough power to overpower the drag being put on the generator/alternator by the load......and what started out as fun, suddenly became an awful lot of work.....and the blades, or the legs aren't capable to doing the work...

Put a big flywheel on it and it'll just extend the amount of time till it becomes hard work again......after being hard work to get the flywheel going in the first place........

[fungus]

"but that's basically Lance Armstrong level as far as I'm concerned."

Actually he could do 300w continous and 1000w peak

[yakas]

They do sell mounted generators that can be attached to a bike. It's what I mean by a kit.

Here is a statement that i don't know if it's true or not and would like your opinions - The larger the disk containing magnets and the other containing coils the more electricity could be produced per revolution. As well as the faster the rotation the more power it can produce.