Could I power my home with a rowing machine?

[Narz]

Say I used very little power in terms of super efficient lights, a small computer & a super efficient fridge (and heating & hot water was non-electric). Would one man be able to power a battery & thus his home with a rowing machine &/or bicycle? How many hours a day would he have to work?

 

[emzie]

That would depend upon how fit you were and how efficient your generator was.

A world-class professional cyclist seems to get a 300w-400w / hour.

That could power a small, efficient fridge. Of course you'd need to be riding it all the time. If you want to store the energy in a battery, your efficiency plummets by half.

Also something to factor in is that energy isn't free. You'd be eating a lot more food to be able to power anything with a bike generator.

 

[Narz]

That would depend upon how fit you were and how efficient your generator was.

A world-class professional cyclist seems to get a 300w-400w / hour.

Yeah, I remember hearing that about Lance Armstrong.

That could power a small, efficient fridge. Of course you'd need to be riding it all the time. If you want to store the energy in a battery, your efficiency plummets by half.

Hmm, I've heard of people converting super-efficient chest coolers to fridges by having the cooling system attached to a timer so it's only on some of the time. I wonder what's the most efficient I could get.

Also something to factor in is that energy isn't free. You'd be eating a lot more food to be able to power anything with a bike generator.

I could start a health club in a spare room (not that I have a spare room or even my own room right now , just dreaming here) and have other people do the work.

Srsly though, I'd rather pay for more food & use that food to get in shape. The better shape you're in the lower your heart rate is so the more efficient your body is with energy anyway (of course heavy exercise will still burn extra calories).

 

[uppi]

I don't think you would be able to get much more than 100W by physical activity long term.

At the theoretical maximum efficiency for white light, you would still need something like 5-10W per bulb for lighting. So if you want to light more than one room, a large part of that power budget is already gone. Add a freezer and a computer and I don't think you can power it by yourself.

 

[Silurian]

It may be a good idea to connect an exercise machine to a battery to power some items if you are going to use the exercise machine anyway. It would depend on the environmental cost of the battery and motor against the saved electricity. It could be more worthwhile for a gym.

 

[nonconformist]

Good luck if you like drinking tea; you'd die very quickly.

 

[Cutlass]

Short answer, no. Not unless you essentially stopped using electricity. 1 person simply doesn't have the power output or endurance. You could intermittently power a couple of devices, like radios. But it's not a 24/7 solution.

THE four stationary bikes look almost like any others, except that they are fitted with an arm crank and are hooked up to a generator. As riders pedal and turn the lever, the movement creates a current that flows to a battery pack. They generate an average of 200 watts, enough to run the stereo, a 37-inch L.C.D. television and a laptop for for as long as the bikes are being pedaled at this new gym in Portland, Ore.

More Here


So 4 bikes to provide power for a couple of devices, but only so long as the bikes are in use regularly.

 

[peter grimes]

I've always wondered why kitchen appliances are designed as discreet units, rather than integrated components that worked together.

For example:
My gas oven is always warmer than the rest of the kitchen. Why not pipe some water through the case so that when I turn on the hot water tap the water is preheated? I know that some Agas are set up this way, but they are high end.

The fridge and freezer are essentially heat pumps: they take the heat from the inside and pump it to the outside. Is there a way to capture that heat and use it to keep the oven warm, or the hot water warmer? Why just let that heat escape into the room? Seems like a waste.

 

[Gigaz]

The fridge and freezer are essentially heat pumps: they take the heat from the inside and pump it to the outside. Is there a way to capture that heat and use it to keep the oven warm, or the hot water warmer? Why just let that heat escape into the room? Seems like a waste.

A good fridge does not pump much heat, but the output is rather steady. Your oven on the other hand needs a very high temperature for only short periods of time. The power for the heat pump is proportional to the temperature difference. I think it's quite hard to build a heat pump that switches regularily from 15 K temperature gradient (pumping into the kitchen) to 200 K temperature gradient (pumping into the oven).

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Narz you truly win the Eco-freindly award of the year, well I've heard stories that in the war they used bikes to power radios and TVs, don't know about an efficient house.

 

[uppi]

I've always wondered why kitchen appliances are designed as discreet units, rather than integrated components that worked together.

For example:
My gas oven is always warmer than the rest of the kitchen. Why not pipe some water through the case so that when I turn on the hot water tap the water is preheated? I know that some Agas are set up this way, but they are high end.

The fridge and freezer are essentially heat pumps: they take the heat from the inside and pump it to the outside. Is there a way to capture that heat and use it to keep the oven warm, or the hot water warmer? Why just let that heat escape into the room? Seems like a waste.

Considering the basic thermodynamic process, even without technical difficulties, the smaller the temperature difference, the better becomes the efficiency of the heat pump. So if the radiator of the fridge was very hot (because it is in an oven) the efficiency would drop. So I don't think you would gain much and you would need a more complicated setup, which would introduce additional losses.

 

[mdwh]

The fridge and freezer are essentially heat pumps: they take the heat from the inside and pump it to the outside. Is there a way to capture that heat and use it to keep the oven warm, or the hot water warmer? Why just let that heat escape into the room? Seems like a waste.

How do you transfer the heat?

One way would be to have a Credo oven above the Beko fridge/freezer, but any benefits would be outweighed by the inconvenience as far as most people are concerned.

Any method of moving the heat would have to be one way (otherwise the oven would just heat up the fridge). I imagine that any system to pump it that far to the oven would risk using more energy than you save.

 

[GoodGame]

I remember posting about this a couple of years ago. There is/was at least one company making an exercise machine that powered a turbine. I guess the problem is the weight of the device.

 

[Cutlass]

I've always wondered why kitchen appliances are designed as discreet units, rather than integrated components that worked together.

For example:
My gas oven is always warmer than the rest of the kitchen. Why not pipe some water through the case so that when I turn on the hot water tap the water is preheated? I know that some Agas are set up this way, but they are high end.

The fridge and freezer are essentially heat pumps: they take the heat from the inside and pump it to the outside. Is there a way to capture that heat and use it to keep the oven warm, or the hot water warmer? Why just let that heat escape into the room? Seems like a waste.

Mostly a cost issue. Your refrigerator doesn't output enough heat to be all that useful for other purposes. But the cost of channeling that heat away for other work would be high. Your oven has a high heat output, but only for a small part of the day. Capturing the waste from that would be expensive also. These things would make the devices less efficient at their main job without adding anything really significant to other jobs, except at a very high price for the connectivity.

 

[Zelig]

A world-class professional cyclist seems to get a 300w-400w / hour.

Watts are already a measure of energy per time, you can't have energy per time per time.

 

[Abaddon]

Short answer; no.

You just have to accept that some modern living costs. You can't remove everything.

 

[emzie]

Watts are already a measure of energy per time, you can't have energy per time per time.

Electricity is one thing I will never, ever, understand.

 

[Cutlass]

It's easy. You plug things in and they work. You unplug them and they stop working.

 

[Silurian]

But do not put a plug on both ends of a cable.

(very dangerous)

 

[Perfection]

you can't have energy per time per time.

Sure you can, it's the change in power.