Which Bicycle powered generator should we buy?

Dear Friends:
We would like to buy a bicycle powered generator to get a little "green" with our exercise. We do not have a workshop at this time and are considering buying an assemled generator and are looking at the following three offerings:
www.windstreampower.com lists for $558.00
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm/dp/305/ts/4470103 $639.00
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm which lists for $289.00
These all look pretty much the same to me. Any suggestions or advice you could give us would be much appreciated.
Dan and Mary

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 16:45:26 -0800, Nice Guy wrote:

Dear Friends:
We would like to buy a bicycle powered generator to get a little "green" with our exercise. We do not have a workshop at this time and are considering buying an assemled generator and are looking at the following three offerings:
www.windstreampower.com lists for $558.00
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm/dp/305/ts/4470103 $639.00
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm which lists for $289.00
These all look pretty much the same to me. Any suggestions or advice you could give us would be much appreciated.

I think that you will get a lot of environmental "green" bang for the buck if you donate this incredible amount of money to starving children or tree preservation.
If you exercise for 1 hour per day, and produce 100 watt (which is relativey strenuous), then an hour of your exercise would be about 1 penny worth of electricity.
To break even on the $500 purchase price, without considering the time value of money, you would need to exercise for 50000 days, or for 136 years. If two of you exercise on the same machine (2 hours a day total instead of one), you could break even in 76 years.
The other way to say the same thing that I just said, more energy would go into manufacturing these generators, refining ore, smelting copper etc, than you will ever get out of them.
i

On Sat, 03 Dec 2005 01:03:09 GMT, Ignoramus19006 wrote:

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 16:45:26 -0800, Nice Guy wrote: Dear Friends:
We would like to buy a bicycle powered generator to get a little "green" with our exercise. We do not have a workshop at this time and are considering buying an assemled generator and are looking at the following three offerings:
www.windstreampower.com lists for $558.00
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm/dp/305/ts/4470103 $639.00
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm which lists for $289.00
These all look pretty much the same to me. Any suggestions or advice you could give us would be much appreciated.
I think that you will get a lot of environmental "green" bang for the buck if you donate this incredible amount of money to starving children or tree preservation.
If you exercise for 1 hour per day, and produce 100 watt (which is relativey strenuous), then an hour of your exercise would be about 1 penny worth of electricity.
To break even on the $500 purchase price, without considering the time value of money, you would need to exercise for 50000 days, or for 136 years. If two of you exercise on the same machine (2 hours a day total instead of one), you could break even in 76 years.

Forgot to say, it is unrealistic to expect this machine to last 50000 hours. That's equivalent to about 5 years of continuous 24x7 use.
i

The other way to say the same thing that I just said, more energy would go into manufacturing these generators, refining ore, smelting copper etc, than you will ever get out of them.
i

--

In article , ignoramus19006@NOSPAM.19006.invalid says...

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 16:45:26 -0800, Nice Guy wrote: Dear Friends:
We would like to buy a bicycle powered generator to get a little "green" with our exercise. We do not have a workshop at this time and are considering buying an assemled generator and are looking at the following three offerings:
www.windstreampower.com lists for $558.00
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm/dp/305/ts/4470103 $639.00
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm which lists for $289.00
These all look pretty much the same to me. Any suggestions or advice you could give us would be much appreciated.
I think that you will get a lot of environmental "green" bang for the buck if you donate this incredible amount of money to starving children or tree preservation.
If you exercise for 1 hour per day, and produce 100 watt (which is relativey strenuous), then an hour of your exercise would be about 1 penny worth of electricity.
To break even on the $500 purchase price, without considering the time value of money, you would need to exercise for 50000 days, or for 136 years. If two of you exercise on the same machine (2 hours a day total instead of one), you could break even in 76 years.

On the other hand, being off-grid would change that calculation, just as it does with PV panels. Although I don't know that the bicycle generator would be any better than an equivalent amount of PV (maybe if it is really dark where you live?)
I recall seeing one supplier for an item like the above-linked ones, that was mainly interested in selling to folks in third-world countries. And I think there were suggestions of, say, starting a business, where your neighbours bring you their batteries, and you crank your generator all day long, to charge them up, for a fee.
Also, it may be possible to build your own bicycle generator for less $$$ than those commercial units.
I wonder if a more efficient idea might involve attaching a water pump to a stationery bicycle, rather than a generator or alternator. That could move water around your well, cistern, gravity-fed house tank, or small irrigation system, without the need for an electric pump.
And I expect that the most efficient use of pedal-power is for plain old-fashioned transportation, avoiding the cost of petrol, etc.
-- Get Credit Where Credit Is Due http://www.cardreport.com/ Credit Tools, Reference, and Forum

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 18:43:39 -0800, Antipodean Bucket Farmer wrote:

In article , ignoramus19006@NOSPAM.19006.invalid says... On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 16:45:26 -0800, Nice Guy wrote: Dear Friends:
We would like to buy a bicycle powered generator to get a little "green" with our exercise. We do not have a workshop at this time and are considering buying an assemled generator and are looking at the following three offerings:
www.windstreampower.com lists for $558.00
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm/dp/305/ts/4470103 $639.00
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm which lists for $289.00
These all look pretty much the same to me. Any suggestions or advice you could give us would be much appreciated.
I think that you will get a lot of environmental "green" bang for the buck if you donate this incredible amount of money to starving children or tree preservation.
If you exercise for 1 hour per day, and produce 100 watt (which is relativey strenuous), then an hour of your exercise would be about 1 penny worth of electricity.
To break even on the $500 purchase price, without considering the time value of money, you would need to exercise for 50000 days, or for 136 years. If two of you exercise on the same machine (2 hours a day total instead of one), you could break even in 76 years.
On the other hand, being off-grid would change that calculation, just as it does with PV panels. Although I don't know that the bicycle generator would be any better than an equivalent amount of PV (maybe if it is really dark where you live?)
I recall seeing one supplier for an item like the above-linked ones, that was mainly interested in selling to folks in third-world countries. And I think there were suggestions of, say, starting a business, where your neighbours bring you their batteries, and you crank your generator all day long, to charge them up, for a fee.
Also, it may be possible to build your own bicycle generator for less $$$ than those commercial units.
I wonder if a more efficient idea might involve attaching a water pump to a stationery bicycle, rather than a generator or alternator. That could move water around your well, cistern, gravity-fed house tank, or small irrigation system, without the need for an electric pump.
And I expect that the most efficient use of pedal-power is for plain old-fashioned transportation, avoiding the cost of petrol, etc.

I agree with the latter statement, but the previous examples are a little contrived. A $500 genset would be a better business than a $500 bicycle generator.
i

"Ignoramus19006" wrote in message

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 16:45:26 -0800, Nice Guy <spamm@spammbusters.com wrote: Dear Friends:
We would like to buy a bicycle powered generator to get a little "green" with our exercise. We do not have a workshop at this time and are considering buying an assemled generator and are looking at the following three offerings:
www.windstreampower.com lists for $558.00
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm/dp/305/ts/4470103 $639.00
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm which lists for $289.00
These all look pretty much the same to me. Any suggestions or advice you could give us would be much appreciated.
I think that you will get a lot of environmental "green" bang for the buck if you donate this incredible amount of money to starving children or tree preservation.
If you exercise for 1 hour per day, and produce 100 watt (which is relativey strenuous), then an hour of your exercise would be about 1 penny worth of electricity.
To break even on the $500 purchase price, without considering the time value of money, you would need to exercise for 50000 days, or for 136 years. If two of you exercise on the same machine (2 hours a day total instead of one), you could break even in 76 years.
The other way to say the same thing that I just said, more energy would go into manufacturing these generators, refining ore, smelting copper etc, than you will ever get out of them.
i

It sounds like one 165 watt solar panel would be a better use of the money.

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 20:40:49 -0800, Ulysses wrote:

"Ignoramus19006" wrote in message On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 16:45:26 -0800, Nice Guy <spamm@spammbusters.com wrote: Dear Friends:
We would like to buy a bicycle powered generator to get a little "green" with our exercise. We do not have a workshop at this time and are considering buying an assemled generator and are looking at the following three offerings:
www.windstreampower.com lists for $558.00
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm/dp/305/ts/4470103 $639.00
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm which lists for $289.00
These all look pretty much the same to me. Any suggestions or advice you could give us would be much appreciated.
I think that you will get a lot of environmental "green" bang for the buck if you donate this incredible amount of money to starving children or tree preservation.
If you exercise for 1 hour per day, and produce 100 watt (which is relativey strenuous), then an hour of your exercise would be about 1 penny worth of electricity.
To break even on the $500 purchase price, without considering the time value of money, you would need to exercise for 50000 days, or for 136 years. If two of you exercise on the same machine (2 hours a day total instead of one), you could break even in 76 years.
The other way to say the same thing that I just said, more energy would go into manufacturing these generators, refining ore, smelting copper etc, than you will ever get out of them.
i
It sounds like one 165 watt solar panel would be a better use of the money.

We could say that it would be a less wasteful use of the money...
i

In article , ignoramus19006@NOSPAM.19006.invalid says...

On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 18:43:39 -0800, Antipodean Bucket Farmer wrote: In article , ignoramus19006@NOSPAM.19006.invalid says... On Fri, 2 Dec 2005 16:45:26 -0800, Nice Guy wrote: Dear Friends:
We would like to buy a bicycle powered generator to get a little "green" with our exercise. We do not have a workshop at this time and are considering buying an assemled generator and are looking at the following three offerings:
www.windstreampower.com lists for $558.00
http://www.realgoods.com/shop/shop3.cfm/dp/305/ts/4470103 $639.00
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm which lists for $289.00
These all look pretty much the same to me. Any suggestions or advice you could give us would be much appreciated.
I think that you will get a lot of environmental "green" bang for the buck if you donate this incredible amount of money to starving children or tree preservation.
If you exercise for 1 hour per day, and produce 100 watt (which is relativey strenuous), then an hour of your exercise would be about 1 penny worth of electricity.
To break even on the $500 purchase price, without considering the time value of money, you would need to exercise for 50000 days, or for 136 years. If two of you exercise on the same machine (2 hours a day total instead of one), you could break even in 76 years.
On the other hand, being off-grid would change that calculation, just as it does with PV panels. Although I don't know that the bicycle generator would be any better than an equivalent amount of PV (maybe if it is really dark where you live?)
I recall seeing one supplier for an item like the above-linked ones, that was mainly interested in selling to folks in third-world countries. And I think there were suggestions of, say, starting a business, where your neighbours bring you their batteries, and you crank your generator all day long, to charge them up, for a fee.
Also, it may be possible to build your own bicycle generator for less $$$ than those commercial units.
I wonder if a more efficient idea might involve attaching a water pump to a stationery bicycle, rather than a generator or alternator. That could move water around your well, cistern, gravity-fed house tank, or small irrigation system, without the need for an electric pump.
And I expect that the most efficient use of pedal-power is for plain old-fashioned transportation, avoiding the cost of petrol, etc.
I agree with the latter statement, but the previous examples are a little contrived. A $500 genset would be a better business than a $500 bicycle generator.

Well, as far as the business idea, I think that it was based on the idea of being in an area where petrol/diesel fuel and motor oil are very difficult or expensive to obtain, along with an even worse shortage of generator rebuild parts and skillz.
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