Your Questions About Exercise Bike Generator
Ken asks…
Electric car question?
Ok why can’t they make some sort of generator that charges the batteries of an electric car while the wheels spin? I have seen a simple generator made from a stationary exercise bike that easily powered multiple light bulbs, now think of the RPMs of the tires of a moving vehicle. Wouldnt you think they could easily make some sort of generator that would be run from the 2 wheels that just roll not the drive wheels? I think they would sell alot more electric cars, I would buy one if I didnt have to charge it after about 250 miles, I could actually drive it on long trips and save alot of money.
admin answers:
It takes energy to spin a generator. That energy comes from the motion of the car. So spinning the generator will cause the car to slow down. The more energy the generator takes, the slower the car goes.
It doesn’t matter that the wheels connected to the generator are not the drive wheels. The car slows down anyway, just like it would if you dragged your feet on the ground.
The generator on the exercise bike makes the bike harder to pedal. If a really large generator was attached, you would definitely notice the extra effort it was taking you.
There are laws of physics involved which predict that no matter how cleverly you set this up, the generators will always take more energy than they give back. Sad but true.
Linda asks…
Would these ideas generate energy?
So you have heard of those maglev trains in Japan and other European locations, but what if it was used to generate energy? Imagine one of those trains and the rails minimized in a loop lying down horizontally. Simply get the train going and it spins faster and faster around the track now, wouldn’t it? Now imagine in the center of the loop a generator that is connected to the moving part and when it spins, it would go through the process of all of that generating energy while it is spinning. Is that all it would take? Perhaps a conveyor-belt with magnets on the conveyor belt, and a stationary magnet above it, below, or something else, and on the conveyor belt would be the generator. With magnets in place, it should spin with the same concept of a maglev train, yes? Could this idea be used to generate energy? If not, why?
And one last question. During a school assembly last year, a student was asked to come up on stage and pedal a stationary bike, and when the bike was pedaled, a light bulb begin to glow. Once the student stopped pedaling the light bulb darkened. Now exercise bikes are basically pointless to me besides the fact they are a way of getting a bit more fit. If there were to be a small generator on the back of an exercise bike we could probably generate a small amount of energy, probably install a little battery recharger on it and charge your batteries there. Could this be done?
If idea one only uses magnets, would it generate power.
admin answers:
With Idea number 2…. Its not useful on the basis that you have to pedal nearly thirty minutes for generate enough juice to cook a single piece of toast. If you want to recharge batteries theres simpler method of creating solar rechargers. Now if you wanted to charge a phone or mp3 player you would only get minimal juice even on a long ride.
Idea 1 would generate less power than it uses.
Daniel asks…
Could we make every household (mostly) battery powered??
Even recharge them via solar energy, or turning a generator every time we run the water or pedal an exercise bike? ….Just a thought I’ve been having….would this be feasible???…or worth it???
admin answers:
I wouldn’t say that batteries power a house; they just store electricity. If you are on the grid, though, there’s no reason for needing to store electricity. If you have solar panels that produce an excess at times, you just give power to the grid and get it back later. As for building generators to harness energy like exercise bikes or hamster wheels, that’s a clever idea, but ultimately not worth the trouble. They would probably cost more to make and maintain than you would recuperate.
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