FollowA lot of effort has been made to generate energy and electricity by human efforts. The motivation behind this technology is as we consume energy so we should also generate energy. Now, we have successfully designed and developed several pedal powered machines that can perform our day to day activities. Bicycle pedal and cranks have made notable contribution in generating energy that is purely ecofriendly allowing us to get rid of post carbon problems.
The pedal powered machines are designed largely to make use of bicycle generating energy by just cycling for few seconds. Here is a list of 10 fantastic machines that are powered and give the intended results with a pair of bicycle pedals.
1. Human Powered Internet Kiosk
Internet kiosk machine is a unique attempt made in Bangladesh to make Internet more accessible. Internet kiosk machine consists of one server which is a computer connected with small device acting as workstation where server is capable enough to send out Wi-max signals. Human powered Internet kiosk has two seats with complete radio broadcasting system making you hear community radio and live through internet. The idea of developing Internet kiosk was given by Motorola in which Edge-enabled mobile phones are connected to the server via USB cable. The device is ecofriendly, portable, small in size, reliable that connect people allowing them to work in a team.
2. Human Powered Electricity Generator
Human power generation developed by Windstream is ideal for application that requires power fewer than 65 watts. It is a portable and a user friendly equipment which consists of heavy, powder coated steel frame holding crank like bicycle with standard foot pedal and step-up chain drive attached to permanent magnet DC generator. The capacity of power generation is determined by the energy available to turn the crank. Hence, stronger the person using the device the more electrical power will be generated. Usually, human power generator is capable to generate 60 watts and 35 watts with hand cranks. In terms of volt, it can charge 12 volt or generate 12 volt electricity to make the equipment workable.
3. Human Powered Car
The Human Car Imagine PS is the outcome of a brainchild engineer Charles Greenwood. For more than 40 years, he has been designing and developing perfect human powered car. Charles Greenwood started working on these cars in 1968 with an intention to curb pollution and dangerous effect on the health of many drivers. It has four seats and it is a hybrid car with electric battery that is used when the number of passengers is less. You need to give few backward and forward hand cranks to start the car. The car has a reasonable shape that manage the driving very easily.
4. Human Powered cooler/heater
Now you can utilize your exercise bike to heat and chill your food stuff. Yes, an innovative Australian engineer has successfully designed exercise bike that can utilize unwanted calories that burn during cycling. You can now use your energy to chill down beer to cherish after hard workout. The engineer integrated two copper wires connected to entire pedal assembly of the exercise bike. As soon as you pedal, the energy is generated which passes through the copper wiring. You can either chill your beer can or prepare a cup of coffee with just your muscle power. Isn’t it awesome?
5. Human Powered Washing Machine
Again human powered washing machine is designed with the same pedal powered technique. It is quite old technology but somehow people have not accepted this ecofriendly machine. It is user friendly and it makes your washing task simpler along with your daily workouts. Human powered washing machine saves electricity. It does not require much workouts as the overall rotation mechanism is not very complicated.
6. Human Powered Gadget Charger
With this gadget you can charge your electronic gadgets like music players while you are on your workouts. This gadget charger is from China. It works on pedal power and high density LED Spotlight. It comes with USB port. The multipurpose gadget charger can also light up your house when there is power shortage.
7. Human Powered Welding machine
Like other human powered machines inertia welding machine is again an awesome step for green environment. Inertia welding machine was the result of Google’s Innovate or Die contest where the participants were told to put pedaling power of bicycle to some useful purpose. The excited young boys designed this machine which makes little use of human muscle power. The design of welding machine consists of bicycle, car jack, fly wheel from the static steam engine and two aluminum sheets and few men to make it work. You may explode your ear drums with the noise generated at the time of pedaling at the speed of 400-450 rpm. But pedaling for just few seconds is worth for the working of ultimate result of joining two aluminum sheets.
8. Human Powered Snowplow
This is again a miracle from a bicycle maker Trek, where designer Kevin Blake has developed incredible snowplow. He used old lawn mower chassis to construct pedal powered snowplow. He removed rear and front wheels, gearbox and steering connections from the mower chassis. Next he put together these accessories on the floor and laid down a steel frame to tie up the pieces together. Lastly he attached set of bicycle pedal and shovel to the new framework. This ultimately designed into pedal powered snowplow.
9. Human powered grain crusher
A fellow student of Beena Sukumaran who was the professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rowan University has developed pedal powered grain crusher. With an intention to provide cost effective food processor to the economically backward people of the world introduced the concept of grain crusher. Although the design is not completely ready. According to the prototype this remarkable machine is using bicycle mounted on a stand prompts the back wheel to turn the pulley which moves the plates in the crusher and it can crush and grind.
10. Human powered Water Purifier
Human powered water purifier developed by IDEO is the again a three wheeler bike which uses the energy generated from cycling. This is again a step toward generating and using power to perform day-to day activities. Aquaduct water purifier will turn out to be a boon allowing water transportation on large scale at the same time it allows you to purify water with pedal power. This water purifier won the top honors in year 2008. This is a boon for those who are still struggling for clean water.
Source: ecofriend
