Charge your phone using pedal power with the K-TOR Power Box

K-TOR has added a new portable charging device to its lineup. The new Power Box puts your legs to work toward converting kinetic energy to electricity. Use it enough and you might just get your weekly workout. It is quite simply a pedal-powered generator equipped with a dual-pronged outlet so that you can plug in an AC adapter and charge your device directly from your leg power. The box works for devices rated 20W and below, including low-power netbooks, tablets, smartphones, video devices and portable game systems.

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How To Build Your Own Pedal-Powered Bike Generator

If you were a puzzle fan in your childhood or if you simply love building things, you now have the chance to make a most surprising combination: a power-generating exercise bike out of a washing machine. So you get a double effect from a work-out: great legs and power for your house!

A regular routine will get you support for, let’s say, a 50W consumer and a 21” monitor. You basically need a washing machine motor and an old bicycle as basic parts, but also a bridge rectifier, an old UPS and a battery, a 20-gauge wire angle, soldering iron and a cheap multimeter. A soldering and a welding setup will definitely come in handy and don’t forget to bring in an angle grinder with cutoff wheels.

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How to convert an exercise bike into an electricity generating bike

So you pedal an exercise bike at home. That is a good cardio-vascular workout, besides making you feel less guilty about the portion of fries you ate with your burger last evening. Many exercise bikes come with attachments to read your heart rate and and display the calories burnt. The muscular effort is used in overcoming friction in the bike drive and is dissipated as heat. Instead of wasting the the muscular energy as heat, it is possible to convert it into electricity as your contribution to the cause of green energy. The electricity generated will be in the 50 watts to 300 watts range, enough to light a bulb , run a fan or power your laptop but won’t make a significant difference to your utility bill. It is an easy do-it-yourself gadget and is good for a few bragging points with your friends and neighbors.

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