Pedal Powered Electricity Generator from Windstream
The pedal powered generator from Windstream is perfect for emergencies, power failures, remote locations, and off-grid applications. It can be pedaled or cranked by hand to charge 12 volt batteries and run small appliances. The typical average continuous power that can be generated by pedaling the Human Power Generator is up to about 80 watts. The maximum power obtainable through hand cranking typically is about 50 watts. The pedals and optional hand-cranks are interchangeable. Re-engineered for more strength, easier adjustment, and smooth operation, the new MkIII Human Power Generator is the tool for energy education and self-reliant electrical production.
Back in the ’70s, if Sheila Kerr wanted to watch television she had to work for it. Her inventor father rigged the TV to a generator powered by a bicycle. “If I wanted to see ‘The Dukes of Hazzard,’ I had to pedal,” Kerr said recalling her favorite show with a laugh. Today Kerr still is pushing pedals, but not to see Luke Duke or Boss Hogg. She’s head of sales and marketing for Windstream Power LLC, founded by her father, Colin Kerr. She sells human-powered generators all over the world.
Some might be powering TVs but they are also powering lights and appliances for foresters in camps in Siberia, “off-grid” homesteaders in Alaska, even owners of ocean-going boats. With increasing awareness about the effects of global warming and skyrocketing energy costs, human-generated power is gaining attention again. Windstream is well positioned to take center stage as one of the only established makers of human-powered generators. In April, Windstream was acquired by Bowles Corp., a North Ferrisburgh environmental engineering company, providing Windstream with engineering expertise and financial backing.
Bowles does oil-spill recovery through subsidiary Clean Earth Technology and makes an ultrasound watt meter used in ultrasound imaging machines. “I’ve been for years and years looking for the third leg of the stool,” said Dave Bowles, president. Windstream turned out to be the answer, although at first he wondered about the market for human-powered generators. As Bowles learned more about them, he saw possibilities.
Windstream makes two types of human-powered generators. One uses a bicycle crank assembly attached to a chain and a fixed gear that charges a 12-volt battery by hand cranking or by pedaling. The other is a bicycle training stand that hooks up to a bicycle. The charged battery, with the help of an inverter, becomes a power source for a variety of needs from a laptop computer to a light bulb to an appliance.
The idea for a pedal-powered generator grew out of a wind turbine generator Windstream developed that was designed to perform in adverse conditions. The Helius, still in use today, was attached to the top of buoys in the ocean generating power for underwater research equipment.
After the Helius was on the market, requests began to come in from boaters who wanted to generate power without having to rely on their diesel engines. The pedal-power generator was introduced in 1978. Windstream’s generators are marketed to schools and museums that use them to demonstrate how much human exertion it takes to make power, something most of us have little awareness of, noted Dave Melichar, an engineer with Windstream.
“There’s a huge lack of knowledge in our community and society about how much we consume and what it takes to produce it,” Melichar said. The generators aren’t cheap. The pedal crank sells for $497. The bicycle trainer setup costs $558, without the bike. The battery packs cost $397 but are sold at a discount when paired with the generators, Kerr said.
In addition to educational uses, they are popular in places without reliable electricity, like Zimbabwe, where there is four hours a day of electricity and that seems to be waning, Kerr said. People who intentionally live “off the grid” without electricity in remote places such as Siberia and Alaska, also buy them, Kerr said. The company enjoyed a bump in business in 1999 from people worried about failure of the grid at the turn of the century, she said.
Kerr is excited to have the company in a situation where it can grow. Already, Windstream’s battery pack has been streamlined and made more portable. Sales have doubled this year. Windstream hasn’t advertised in years, relying on the internet to bring in customers. Googling “human-powered generator” brings up the company’s name, not because it has paid for that, but because Windstream is one of the few places in the world to buy one.
Inventor Colin Kerr, who has officially retired, arguably was ahead of his time when he hooked up the family TV to a bicycle three decades ago. Things may be finally be changing, however. “In the early ’70s there was a sudden awareness that other sources of energy were called for because of the oil crisis,” Kerr said. “It takes a few rounds before society gets it. We’ve already had a few.”
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January 31st, 2007
Hi, I am looking for information on Human Power and it’s uses.
I attend a College in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and I want to get the institute to start using the energy produced by students and faculty when they use any and all cardio machines. I have been able to find relatively little on any large scale projects that may have been done or currently in progress. Something that I could use as a role model.
If anyone has any type of information or sources that may be of conceivable help; I’d use anything and everything.
Peace and thank you.
September 12th, 2007
Hello,
I’m a Master’s student at the University of Guelph and I am also interested in learning about the application of this technology on a larger scale.
If anyone knows of a case where Windstream generators were successfully used to produce a nominal amount of power, I would appreciate a reply.
Thanks
October 26th, 2007
Hi. I have made a low power generator, using a 300watt (nominal) wind generator hub attached to a frame, but without any blades attached, and driven by a bicycle. I added a rectifier and voltage controller unit, and was able personally to charge a 12V battery at 8 amps, i.e. producing about 100 watts. That was hard work though and 50 watts would be a more realistic target for long-term use. I chose a wind generator because I figured it would have good quality low-friction bearings. This generator has been used on a number of occasions to charge the battery for a 12 volt/100 watt sound system at “Green” events. Many people aged from about 10 years up pedaled the bike, and the battery has never gone below 12 volts.
November 14th, 2007
Hi. I’m the owner of a gym in Portugal and i would like to know if its possible to use the energy produced by 17 bycicles X 16 classes X 1 hour per class, a week of Spinning (static bikes with people pedaling them really hard!). I would imagine that can be some energy there… but how can it be transferred and to what? How much would it cost? Would it be significant?
Thank you for your answer
Rui Barbosa
January 7th, 2008
Hello. I am also a new found believer in the technology of human kinetic energy transfer to electrical power. This could be a potentially great advance and that I would like to support. Please contact me for sharing of efficient entropy.
January 13th, 2008
I just finished building what is essentially an exercise bike. I can easily pedal up 100watts of 12v power, but not, apparently, any more. I’m using a 26″ bike wheel to turn a shaft that has a pulley arrangement to two razor scooter motors, thus bringing their RPM up to the needed 2500. Now to find out how many minutes I can pedal at a time for how many times per day. I can do a normal ex bike for 40 minutes, but that’s without the inspiration of generating juice!
February 12th, 2008
There have been very few larger projects that use stationary bike technology to generate electricity. This is people’s power. I plan to build a series of these with Buddhist texts inside them as with the Mani wheels, (Tibetan prayer Wheels) to turn the dharma and generate and store electricity. Over the next few months I will be working on larger units and will post stuff here and at other energy sites.
Professor Neil
March 18th, 2008
Hi, I have this idea to build a powerup system that can be sold to gyms, where the gym uses his customers to generate electricity for the gym itself. We in South Africa had an electricity problem, we are loadsharing, half a day with out power. Can any one tell me if this idea would work?
June 5th, 2008
Humans (and other mammals) are relatively inefficient converters of food energy into work (including electricity). However, for countries where people can afford plenty of calories, go ahead and try pedal power.
In my experience, it’s more useful as an educational tool than a practical source of power.
June 22nd, 2008
There’s definitely a business opportunity here. With everyone in the U.S. starting to become more conscious of their health as well as the environment, perhaps a non-profit can streamline the production of bikes exploiting the kinetic energy. Now this isn’t a real alternative energy source, but the charged batteries can be used power homes, mobile generators. I think this is something that can be turned into a “cool thing to do.”
June 29th, 2008
Outfitting every exercise machine in each chain of gyms has been an idea I’ve carried around for years. Neither an engineer nor a businessman, I’m not about to try and execute this; but somebody will. Gyms who make the investment of retrofitting (or replacing) their exercise equipment would have some free electricity; surplus electricity could be sold back to the grid, and members’ gym fees reduced accordingly. A small but perhaps non-negligible quantity of fossil fuel could be conserved nationwide. The company that could offer gym chains and independent gyms the service of retrofitting all their existing exercise equipment would likely thrive in the coming environment, financially and otherwise.
As for the home market, it is soon going to be a great deal broader than “Alaska and Siberia.” The US electric grid will experience increasingly frequent blackouts of increasing duration as crises converge: resource scarcity, climate change, deteriorating physical infrastructure, and the unregulated, monopoly-prone state of the electricity industry. In such conditions, the company that can introduce and mass-market a home pedal-power stationary bike can make a mountain of money, as long as there is zero ambiguity about how the owner is supposed to get the electricity from the generator bike into his toaster or tv or lamp. Let’s hope somebody does this soon.
June 29th, 2008
Dear sirs:
Please quote:
Two power generator bikes with low revolutions pedals. Nominal power 500 watts, Electronic charger control: 15 amps., LED indicators of energetic level, Battery 40 AH; illumination system of 4 lamps with cold light, DC Electronic Ignition.
Thanks
Digna Adames
VANJI, S.A.
P.D. If you dont sell this, can you tell me where can I find.