I think it would be interesting to examine the different trips I make in my car (which, I am ashamed to admit, I do quite a lot of), and see if I can change my habits to do less driving, saving money (hopefully) and using less petrol (good for the environment!). This is something anyone could do easily, so I encourage you to do the same after reading this post- you may be surprised at how easily you could save money and do a bit to help the environment.
The Trips
I'm going to take the last year as a typical year for me as a typical 20 year old student. I admit that this state of affairs is not the global average, but I do think that the system of commuting (to and from campus), with 6 long trips a year (uni to home and back) is one that can be very simply adapted to a professional lifestyle. The commuting trips are similar, and the long trips could be travelling somewhere for a holiday (going somewhere for christmas, for example). The main difference is the holidays, which means I'm not commuting to uni (work) 5 days a week for about 4 months in the year.
Let's now examine my different trips.
Saturday 11 September 2010
Wednesday 1 September 2010
Human Powered Gym- Part 2
In Part 1 we examined the use of cardio machines (specifically a exercise bike) to generate electricity to power various items in the gym.
The conclusion of Part 1 was that a normal gym goer could power the machine, charge his phone and maybe power a light or two. Alternatively, he could power the machine and the stereo system.
That's for one person. What about if we have loads of machines, with some being used by people at a certain time, and others not (i.e a gym)?
Let's take the gym I go to as an example. It's a relatively small gym, with 6 upright bikes, 2 recumbant bikes (which I will regard as equivalent for the energy-generating purpose), 8 treadmills, 6 cross-trainers and 4 rowing machines, along with various weights machines and free weights.
If all of the bikes are used at the same time (they never are, but let's assume) then the total power being produced will be 56 x 8 = 448W. [This 56W value comes from Part 1]
However, I reckon that on average only about half of the machines are used at any one time. This means that we have half the power (224W) to use.
This will be just about enough to power the 4 machines (80?W), light up some of the gym (assuming 4 20W fluorescent tubes, 80W), power the music system (which is probably more than 30W as there are quite a few speakers- 50W?) and charge any gadgets the users want to (maximum of 8W).
Hang on, I hear you cry- what about the other machines?
The conclusion of Part 1 was that a normal gym goer could power the machine, charge his phone and maybe power a light or two. Alternatively, he could power the machine and the stereo system.
That's for one person. What about if we have loads of machines, with some being used by people at a certain time, and others not (i.e a gym)?
Let's take the gym I go to as an example. It's a relatively small gym, with 6 upright bikes, 2 recumbant bikes (which I will regard as equivalent for the energy-generating purpose), 8 treadmills, 6 cross-trainers and 4 rowing machines, along with various weights machines and free weights.
If all of the bikes are used at the same time (they never are, but let's assume) then the total power being produced will be 56 x 8 = 448W. [This 56W value comes from Part 1]
However, I reckon that on average only about half of the machines are used at any one time. This means that we have half the power (224W) to use.
This will be just about enough to power the 4 machines (80?W), light up some of the gym (assuming 4 20W fluorescent tubes, 80W), power the music system (which is probably more than 30W as there are quite a few speakers- 50W?) and charge any gadgets the users want to (maximum of 8W).
Hang on, I hear you cry- what about the other machines?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)