Pedal Power - a bike powered generator and trainer

oliverb

I have been building this bicycle powered generator over the last few weeks after
finding plans on the internet.

It uses a bike mounted in a training stand to charge a car battery via a car
alternator and run an inverter to produce 240volts.

The circuitry in the alternator sorts out the battery charging and regulation and keeps
the wiring really simple.

I plan to use this to supply power to my gas central heating boiler during the frequent
power cuts we get in our area. We have now had 2 in the last 4 weeks, not much fun when
its -9 outside.

I finished building it last night and test ran it using mains flex as a temp fan belt.
Apart from my temp belt slipping as it supplied power to the boiler it seems to work
OK.

It should work well as a trainer as there is a 3 position switch for power output or
you could just add extra mains devices to suit your fitness level. A very fit person
should be able to produce 300 watts for a time but 100 watts is prob what most people
can produce.

It would also be a good project for schools or colleges.

Costs
Bike, should be easy to obtain for free. I used my 21 year old redundant Raleigh
Rapide.

Bike stand, I spent £60 on a cheap one and took the turbo fan off. It can still be used
as a turbo trainer if required. On the net many people built their own stands.

Alternator £20 from a car breakers or if you lucky like me a mate had an old one in his
garage.

Cable and components £20 -£30

Fan belt 80" to 83" £7 inc p&p

Car battery £40 to £80 depending on capacity

Inverter 12v to 240v 300 watts £30


When fan belt arrives and I have tested the generator properly I'll probably put some details on the net.

DaveyL

Good work! I was actually just sitting on the turbo tonight, wondering how much I could knock of my energy bills if my output was going somewhere.

mclarent

I was at a festival last year where they had a whole set of these running, powering the decks, lighting etc. Punters were lining up to participate!!

lateralus

Interesting. What does say 100 watts equate to in terms of current output? Presumably 12 volt output to the battery?

oliverb

Here is the site where I got the info from http://www.c-realevents.demon.co.uk/alt ... pedgen.htm
They recommend mounting the bike upside down with the down tube connected to a chair.

I think this chap may do the events mclarent was at.

At 100watts the alternator will have to output 8.3 amps at 12volts and 6.6 amps at 15volts.

I will do some proper measurements when I get my fan belt in the post.

I'll also get some pics and circuit diagram online asap.

oliverb

Just posted some more pics and cct diagrams on this web site http://home.btconnect.com/brettoliver1/bicycle_generator.htm