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Human power

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harley1782000:
Just curious what everyone thinks about this.  I am actually questioning my power company about this and have not answer yet.

Jim

commanda:
Depends on what you eat.

Of course, running the A/C to keep you cool while pedalling like mad probably defeats the purpose.

Amanda

DamonHD:
Food is neither a cheap fuel nor necessarily low carbon: if you eat food that has been grown with a lot of fossil-fuel input (primarily to make fertiliser) then definitely no.

Plus what Amanda says.

If you ate only 'organically' growns food with no fossil energy or mineral inputs, then maybe yes, but you'd still get more usable energy by paving over your organic farm with solar PV by at least an order of magnitude.

Rgds

Damon

jvnn:
I voted yes because we're going to eat regardless of whether we use our body energy.

Those who ride bicycles are saving fossil fuels, one of the best uses of body energy.

DamonHD:
You're going to eat more if you generate significant amounts of power.  If you don't then the emboddied energy of the generation equipment may be wasted.

In this forum we obey the laws of thermodynamics, etc, etc...

(Having said all that, human muscles can be astonishingly efficient, so eating biomass to pedal might be a better way to generate electricity than semi-industrially burning or digesting it.)

Rgds

Damon

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