Harnessing humans as power.

Max Brooks' Suggests in his book "The Zombie Survival Guide" , that if one is trying to sustain either an individual or a group for any period of time, harnessing the potential of human energy must be concidered. he suggest a stationary excercise bike attached to a motor could be used to generate enough light to recharge batteries for radios, lights, communication devices, aswell as other neccesities. how do you guys feel about this use of human power to generate valuable elctricity? are there better ways then spending tons of time on a peddle bike? has anyone come across any desighns for anysuch rig, and would the everyday joe beable to construct o functional one?

this is a link about running TV off of an exercise bike

i hope this helps you get some ideas. if not, sorry.

forums.makezine.com...


i found it by google searching "exercise bike dynamo"

[edit on 18-6-2009 by ELECTRICkoolaidZOMBIEtest]

sounds pretty nonsensical to me. We got photovoltaic cells. You need to get your hands on them before the zombies take over the powerplant obviously, but same goes for a dynamo, so we have 1:1 on the availiabiltiy.

And now the second round: Input vs Output
photovoltaic: Sun, always around, does it's job even if you are doing something else. (like getting enough food to not collapse from starvation)

Bikethingy with dynamo: Only around when you use up the food you gathered earlier to not collapse from starvation, making you collapse faster.

Clear 1:0 for the solar cells here.

Why not just make a wind generator? If your not trying to use a buttload of electricity, small windmill will work just fine.

what if your fortress is under ground, using some form of human dynamo may be essential to charge a power source for grow lights for food that would be neccesary to sustain a group of people. are the aternative to human power for subteranian survival?