Human-powered generator/storage - opinion?

Question

Hey all,

I am working on a project, and it has to be human-powered. I need your guys opinion on what is the best way to store electricity/energy generated from human-powered bike? I was just thinking using whole bunch of rechargable batteries. Also what about alternatives, like is there a way to split the power generated from the bike in to two channels? Meaning one channel directly goes to the batteries (or other better option to store) and other goes directly into use..

This has to be compact too.

Thanks for your inputs.

Answer 1

lithium ion or lead acid batteries would probably be the best choice. If you want to get creative you could always build a fly wheel. They are very effecient. Want to get crazy? Make a very heavy flywheel suspended by magnetic ball bearings in a vacuum. Basically zero loss. That is complicated though.

Answer 2

Be very careful using rechargeable batteries. If they are not properly charged they may explode or catch fire. Read any warnings. A lead-acid battery as used in a car (or weed whacker?) might be less of a problem (taking care to avoid sparks near the vents where hydrogen may be present). Your generator likely would need to produce more than 12 volts DC unless you reconnected the cells.

Answer 3

Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction comes to mind. Attaching magnets to the chain and running a wire through the center of the chain (perpendicularly) should generate a DC current in the wire. You should google Faraday's law and Maxwell's equations for more info. (hopefully you've had vector calculus). For two channels, use two separate wires. Hope that helps.

Answer 4

easy, hook up a car alternator to a belt from the pully to the wheel to turn the alternator. hook it to a plain car battery. you have now become the car's engine. to make it 110 vac, simply hook a power inverter to it and you can power lights, tv computer or whatever and don't have to constantly pedal to use it. If you use a deep cycle battery and a deep cycle alternator, like out of an R.V., it will last longer, but remember not to drain a deep cycle battery too deeply or you wreck it.