Or not so great... You ever notice how many dead and unwanted bicycles there are around? Check out a police auction sometime...dirt cheap, usually junk. Or how about all the former appliances with motors? Washing machines, dishwashers, etc. These all have AC motors, basically electric generators. And then there's all those folks with no practical abilities, ie. professions... Or just those people incarcerated for one reason or another, a lot of them with no training to do anything of "value". Yep, over 5,000, prisoners in Ohio, the state I live in right now. What a waste: Bicycles, AC motors and people in prison. Humm, now what could we do with that? Obvious answer, yes? Prisoners could be trained in bicycle and motor repair, basic electricity through electric engineering, machining, welding etc., good things to know anywhere, in order to build human-driven generators. The power, of course coming from the prisoners themselves, riding stationary bicycles. Good exercise. A few basic, probably really bad, calculations: 100 people creating 200 watts of electricity for one hour at 12 hours per day = 240 kilowatts at $0.08.27 (Ohio average cost) = $198.48 Hardly worthwhile except the numbers are very conservative and can only increase: More prisoner participation, more and improved generators. Even if not, it's all about turning waste into something useful.
calories net loss of energy especially when you consider the initial watt investment in the metal processing, and processing of new motor brushes. you could do better with many bicycles tandemed together, and a much larger brushless generator. but the friction would lose energy too, it's just a total waste on any scale.
Indeed, Dave techie. I was just thinking "out-loud" but as to your concerns: I hear that one of prisoners favorite pastimes is working out and so the calories are expended anyway this is just another way of doing it. As far as metal processing goes, no idea how the costs would breakdown but sounds like a fun exercise and not sure if you'd be right. How do you even calculate the cost of turning a bicycle and motor into a usable generator? A lot of variable there but remember, the labor is nearly free. And then you'd have to calculate the training cost and value. Oh well, thanks for responding and the idea of tandem power sounds about right.
I'm not even thinking financial cost, I'm just thinking energy involved, most bicycle frames are aluminum, which is a REALLY high energy substance.
Not forced at all Donnyw; strictly voluntary. Gee, I'd really like to learn some of those things and riding a bicycle is one of my favorite hobbies. An hour??? Come on ya wuss. A good bike ride is at least 30 miles. But yep, using prisoners for bio-fuel might be as practical as current practices, except I hear it really smells.
actually, we could use human waste for energy production practices, which does smell horrible, but it does work livestock waste is also suitable.
you know a prison inmate can use up to 1500watts in their cell before tripping a breaker. STINGGERS dont use that much, TV's radios ect... But they could learn to draw more power by creating heavier loads. If all the inmates did this they could shut down a power grid.. Most older prisons have a Powerhouses to maintain power if falling off the grid..
they could convert their bars into antennae, and broadcast subversive messages at VERY high rates of power. the circuitry could be hidden pretty easily too.
I get it Dave but wasn't really thinking of bike frame welding but more things like pillow blocks. And Boogabaah, that is amazing. This is a college town too and every damn police auction seems to include hundreds bikes and parts thereof. Geeze, last year I bought the parts to build a very nice mountain bike, being the only bidder, for less than $30.00 with lots of doodads and goodies left over. Ya know, a lot of kids at OSU often just leave their bikes behind? Stick around after school lets out.
Ahh, you're killin me. Prisoners turning their bars into antennae? Broadcasting through concrete and steel where? I was more fascinated by the idea of prisoners with torches. Useless in the long run but what fun they could have.
Sorry Wendy, I tend to get a little pissy when anyone hints at using prisoners as a resource. But unfortunately there is no such thing as voluntarily in the prison system, if a program like that was started it would be forced, the reason alot of prisoners work out is for health reasons, if they don't stay fit they die.
donnyw, I didn't see your response as pissy at all. Don't know much about prison life except my ex-wife was the Chaplain at Muncie Women's. Not nice stories at all, even though she is a much nicer person than I. Just call it mental masturbation or consider it addressing problems. No matter how crazy the idea, it can't be stupider than the causes or our current situation. "I worked litigation in the banking industry for ten years and if you trust these people with your money then your crazier than I am" me.
get energy from the celulossic wastes from our factory farms first, cheaper, easier, and less morally iffy.
Are you from PA.?. they could put tiny generators on the knitting needles and harness the power.. but I hear that theres a strage noise at night coming from there.. NOM NOM NOM.. might be able to harness that..
