bike generator battery charger?

[jpullen88]

Hey,

First some quick background. I have an aquaponic garden on my porch that doesn't get enough light. I want to get some grow lights. I would like to use a 12v battery in order to power the grow lights. The grow lights are 100 watt.

I wanna rig up an electric dc motor to a bike stand so i can pedal. So if i have a 12v motor and i ride 144 watts then how will the generator charge a battery? Will it deliver 12v @ 12 amps? So if its a 12ah battery it'll take 12 hours to fully charge the battery of cycling at 144 watts? Also, there would not be 100% transfer rate but for sake of simplicity is that how it works?

Thats where i am a bit confused and haven't been successful in my research online. Could somebody clarify how my pedaling to turn a generator turns into a charged battery and what type of time frame i would be looking at?

 

[deardancer3]

The alternator powering your charger has significant losses from the pedal input to the alternator output. some say as much as 50%.

Then you need to go to a charger, maybe in inverter befor that. each has significant losses unless you buy the expensive stuff. and a battery.

Try the solar cell route, can get one of those from Harbor freight an other places for not too much.

Use the florescent grow lights, hooked up to inverter/batteries and solar cells if you must, but, they dont use that much 110vac wattage/comapared to the expensive of the other stuff.

A grow light bulb in a small fixture- maybe $25. just plug it into 110vac- cost maybe one penny per 3 hour run time. line the fixture with shiny aluminum foil to get the most light on the plants.

go to http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/

search on grow lights.

d

 

[Knuckles]

Electric bicycles are easily made into generators.

So so so simple. Electric bicycle with rear hub motor and sturdy kick-stand that lifts the rear wheel off the ground.

Then just pedal the bike with rear wheel turning and generate electricity.

The electricity can charge the ebike batteries and/or power any DC appliance you want.

-K

PS ... Ebike is also a great way to get around when you are not stationary (burning calories) powering the stuff you want to power.

PSS ... 100 Watts is a darn good workout. Most FAT folks maybe generate 25 to 50 Watts (before they go into cardiac arrest ).

 

[Drunkskunk]

a 12 volt, 12 ah batttery holds 144 watt hours, or the ability to produce 144 watts for 1 hour, or 1 watt for 144 hours.

If you could "in theory" produce 144 watts from a generator, it would charge in 1 hour.

But then you have the losses. 50% is a good number to guestimate with. if you could peddle for 144 watts for 1 hour, you would be able to stuff 72 watts into the battery, and recharge it in 2 hours.

144 watts is a huge effort on a bike for a sustained time. A speed of 15Kph ueses roughly 30 watts of human effort


And depending on the type of battery, they may not be able to deliver that full power back to the like because of something called the Peukert effect. if it's a lead acid battery, for instance, you might only be able to pull 50% of it's 12 amp hours out of it at the 100 watt rate, so you would need to recharge it twice as often. And thats assuming the light works on 12 volts. if you have to use an inverter to get the voltage up for a florescent, you lose even more efficancy


We don't sugar coat answers here. Your idea could work, but it would be less than practical.


A bike hub motor of a high winding count, attached to a car alternator's rectifier, and running through an automotive voltage regulator would probably be the easiest and most efficient way of harnessing power.

But a more practicle idea would be to attach some blades to that motor, stick it up in the wind, and let the wind charge it

 

[Knuckles]

Hey,
I have an aquaponic garden (pot plants) on my porch that doesn't get enough light. I want to get some grow lights (from head shop). I would like to use a 12v battery in order to power the grow lights (hide electric usage). The grow lights are 100 watt.

I wanna rig up an electric dc motor to a bike stand so i can pedal (while getting high of course). So if i have a 12v motor and i ride 144 watts (yes man, I am on drugs) then how will the generator charge a battery? Will it deliver 12v @ 12 amps? So if its a 12ah battery it'll take 12 hours to fully charge the battery of cycling at 144 watts (this is some good shit)? Also, there would not be 100% transfer rate but for sake of simplicity is that how it works?

Thats where i am a bit confused (and stoned too) and haven't been successful in my research online. Could somebody clarify how my pedaling to turn a generator turns into a charged battery and what type of time frame (2-5 years with possible parole in 3) i would be looking at?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[youtube]inAnQmkE1Uw[/youtube]

Simple Setup ...
1) Rear wheel electric bike on kickstand with 4 x 12AH 12V SLA (48V) batteries.
2) 6-fet stock controller with regen.
3) Cheap switching voltage regulator.
4) DC LED "Grow Lights" w/ LVC=40V.
5) Invite "Cheech" Marin over to pedal bike for you
(place munchies 3 feet in front of stationary bike).

You now have UNLIMITED power supply! 8)

PS ... Use ebike to bring your "crop" to "market".
Now that is the future of "Green" Technology!

 

[dogman dan]

Heh Heh, 25 years ago, I learned real fast not to try to grow any quality smoke without at least 1000 watts of grow light. 8) Now I'm tired enough all the time without the help of any of that stuff.