Is it possible to create human power generation plants?

Question

I have a question which is engineering based. i understand this question is probably not possible but I am wondering if anyone with a greater understanding of physics and engineering might have something forward looking ideas or something to add.

In a simple explanation i think it would be possible some how to use human pedal like power to turn a generator of the same size you would use at a nuke plant. Its clear a human can not directly turn it pedal power so no flames please, my question is what what laws of physics could we integrate together to allow this to happen.

Don't forget coal plants and nuke plants which turn these generators are very very costly to run. I should say Extremely costly to run. So try to think of it this way you have let say 12 humans per 8 hour shift per one generator, and they are going to be cream of the crop for this duty.

Give your best answer, answers which say its not possible are fine just back it up. Thanks and have fun

Jasun

matt -- i would like to comment on your answer. Do you have any idea how much it cost to run a nuke plant per day? Do you know how dangerous it is if something goes wrong? Do you thing your world is infinite? Can i get an ivy league answer?

Answer 1

In peak condition, a person can only generate a couple hundred watts, and probably not for very long.

For simple math, let's assume a person pedaling can sustain roughly 100 watts of electrical output for more than an hour. This is 0.1 kW.

A typical generating station produces more than 1,000 MW. That's 1,000,000 kW continuously 24 hour a day, 365 days a year.

You would need 10 million people pedaling full time. If they worked 8 hour shifts, you'd need 30,000,000 people just to produce the power of one nuclear unit. And that doesn't even begin to address the support service logistics, such as producing food, shelter, clothing, transportation, for this extra 30M people.

Every watt used by these 30M people when they're not pedaling is another watt that must be generated by more people pedaling on another generator.

Excerpt from web page:
"The power levels that a human being can produce through pedaling depend on how strong the pedaler is and on how long he or she needs to pedal. If the task to be powered will continue for hours at a time, 75 watts mechanical power is generally considered the limit for a larger, healthy non-athlete. A healthy athletic person of the same build might produce up to twice this amount."

Answer 2

Even 12 humans on an eight hour shift per generator cannot produce anywhere near what a dam can do with tons of water turning a turbine. It would just be impractical to have humans do it.
However, there is an idea for a weight room and gym facility where all the machines are hooked up to a generator and the building can run under its own power as long as there are people working out. So to provide electricity for one building it would work. But not on a large scale.

Answer 3

It's completely possible. But whoever is running it would get really tired as humans only have as much energy as the food we eat. To turn a generator of the same size as say a coal plant, we'd just need to use a series of gears/wheel and axles. Simple machines. They work on the premise that energy=force*distance, so to generate energy with less force, we'd just need to carry out that smaller force over a greater distance. And the distance would be really long. It would take a heck of a lot of pedalling, even if we had several people contributing.

It all comes down to the fact that energy cannot be created (except from mass annihilation...) so the only energy that a human could produce would be from the food that he/she eats. We don't eat enough to really make a useful amount of energy. Not to mention the energy we need for other critical body functions such as breathing, etc.

Answer 4

One human canot turn a steam generator. If they could they would have to have it geared so highly that the generator would barely move. Multiple humans could but Even at the absolute minmum wage they would cost many tmes more than nuke or coal. Also you would probably end up having a machine extremely unefficient. Humans are highly unefficient beings but they require very little maintinence.

Anyway, we should really just be using nuclear powerplants everywhere. They are the most efficient and safest and least polluting of all power sources. And, if it was'nt for extreme human error and lazyness we would never have problems with nuclear power plants and they would be used everywhere.

Answer 5

A human can only pedal about an hour a day. Open a gym with standing bikes connected to small generators like cars use to charge their battery. Wire all of them together and remember to charge the pedallers for their time on the bikes at your weight loss clinic.
2400 people per day on 1 hour shifts will produce enough electricity for about two good sized apartment buildings.
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