Laptop power cranks up a gear There’s never really been a reliable way of losing weight and saving the planet - and certaintly not one that works while you're sat working at your desk. Until now - a Spanish Polytechnic has invented a laptop that runs on a miniature bicycle. cycle_laptop_2 No need for the gym after work now The Polytechnic of Madrid’s …
What is the difference between this and a treadle 'powered' sewing machine or potters wheel - very little except that potter or seamstress/tailor is probably doing some actual work.
I think this is a great idea - I would love a treadle desk to recharge/power a laptop or even a desktop - might eat some of those excess pounds we westerners are prone to accumulate and would save time and money wasted at the gym.
(please note, my coat is already on in anticipation...)
...what happens when you need to answer the call of nature - presumably the laptop has some kind of rechargeable battery so you don't have to be pedalling all the time.....
Also - what about discrimination for the legless (and no, I don't mean the Sys Admins after a "Liquid Lunch")....
how about detaching the laptop battery and having the charger attached to an actual bicycle. That way you can ride your bicycle to work and home again while charging your battery?
Once the battery runs out of juice you are compelled to go for a ride, ergonomically good for you (hazardous if you ride to the local pub!) as you will not spend too much time plonked in front of your screen. I do like the idea of using the gym junkies as a source of free (voluntarily paid up) electrical energy. Has a low tech shade of the Matrix about it...!
Not so dandy - there's a reason that dynamo lights on bicycles fell out of favour a few years ago: they are a huge drag on the wheel*. They worked by running a wheel on the tyre of the bike - the drag might be reduced with an inductive dynamo, but I don't know if they make those for bikes. You'd need to put a lot of stuff on the hub.
Anyway, I think it's fair enough pedalling under your desk when all the juice goes into your laptop, but increasing the load on a normal bike when you're already putting your energy into making the bike move is really annoying.
[*] and the lights went out when you stopped... v. dangerous at traffic lights.
Please re-read your old O-level physics textbook; specifically, the bit about energy never being created nor destroyed, but merely changing from one form to another.
Using the energy supplied to the pedals by the rider to charge a battery *as well as* propelling the bicycle will require more energy input (i.e., it will feel as though the pedals are stiffer). You can test this out on a bicycle with dynamo lights: disconnecting the bulbs makes it easier to turn the pedals (because there is now no electrical energy being converted mostly to heat, with a tiny bit escaping as visible light).
Anyway, wasn't the OLPC project supposed to have a pedal-powered generator as one of its power options?
Stuff the idea of Jocks powering the grid, there are not enough of them.
I have said for years that the best source of renewable energy is small children, and you wont even have to pay them!!
Just build some big hamster type wheels with attached generators, and they will play in them all day, generating megawatts each!!!
Now all I have to do is figure out how to convert megawatts into todger pulling units for the Reg staff to take the idea seriously.
(That's British Standard Todger Pulling Units for all you yanks with your teeny todgers).
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