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John
Lv 6

Thoughts on an idea for an alternate energy vehicle?

Please tell me why this won't work.

So why don't more people ride bikes. Because no one likes to pedal up hill right.

So what if a hybird vehical was made where the vehical ran on an electric motor, powered by a small bank of batteries but where the power for the batteries was supplied by the driver and or passengers by pedaling a generator large enough to quickly recharge the batteries?

The generator would be free wheeling and could be setup on a varible pully to change the generator speed as a power need rose or dropped.

The bank of batteries could allow the driver to not have to pedal the entire time and could take breaks and the batteries could be setup so that they could be plugged in overnight for recharging.

What am I missing other than the fact that even though this may be less difficult that pedaling directly many people would not want to do it because they would still have to supply some power?

But would this be that technically difficult?

4 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I will stick to discussing your proposal.

    If you use a variable pulley construct it would need to be per passenger, to adjust for the force and speed the individual can sustain.

    A generator per passenger, one that is designed to use the force the passenger can supply at a speed that passenger can sustain would give you a better result than an attempt to use variable pulleys.

    A generator per passenger means we can leave the generator at home if its passenger is not coming.

    Now, if we have 3 fairly strong passengers one behind the other to minimize air resistance, and we have a carbon fibre shell, mag bike wheels. seats made of cloth on a light shell, that vehicle could maintain city street speeds, but certainly not expressway or even inter-urban highway.

    If it has well charged batteries, one might use battery power to maintain as much as 80 km/h.

    But people going to the office would need to shower when they get there. Even riding a bike with 5 speeds and a route that allows one to keep going most of the time will leave one well soaked with sweat after travelling 20 km at 30km/h.

    Driving through snow would be heavy going.

    Remember that a bike is heavy at 15 kg. Powering much more weight may be prohibitive for a single person. Also, design to live with cross winds. You might even want to consider using them to provide energy, but by no means should this light vehicle be moved by a wind into the next lane of traffic, or off the road.

  • 2n2222
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago

    It's an old idea, and one which everyone who bicycles up and down hills thinks about a lot.

    There was even an April Fool article in Bicycling Magazine years ago that described an air pump that used the bike frame as a compressed-air tank to store air compressed when the bike was going downhill. Then that air would be used to operate an air motor to aid uphill travel. Looked pretty good.

    None of these downhill energy-storage ideas ever work very well because of the extra weight of the equipment and the fact that they're never very efficient at storing and transferring energy.

    This doesn't mean that none could ever work, but thus far nothing has ever succeeded in leveling hills sufficiently to warrant the extra weight, expense, and general fooling around. Perhaps with really efficient generators and energy-storage capacitors something like your scheme might indeed work, but nobody's done it yet.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    No vehicle which is ultimately powered by human muscles can maintain enough speed to be useful on today's roads. Some other power source is necessary, and hydrocarbon fuels are by far the most cost and weight effective.

  • let me start off by saying Hydrogen is a great option for the concept of free energy. I built my first hydrogen cell about 5 years ago. Have converted over 50 vehicles in the last 10 years (gydrogen and EV) and now currently run 2 trucks (and another EV), my home hot water heater, home stove and home generator on hydrogen for free with caught rain water and the help of a $10 solar panel. I offer a step by step DIY guide to walk anyone interested threw the process. You can find it at www agua-luna com or you can email me.

    There are basically 3 safe ways to make and use it... chemically, electrically and molecularly, the first 2 being easier so I'll only discuss them here. The fallowing steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their vehicles or home on hydrogen safely. The entire guide is available at www agua-luna com

    On demand h2 generators are a bit different from the Hollywood versions like seen Chain Reaction with Keanu Reeves, that tend to explode violently every time a film is being made. However when used in an on-demand system there is no storage of hydrogen and oxygen in its gas form, only liquid (water) and is only transformed into gas “on-demand” in small cylinder size amounts. It’s actually safer then gasoline as it doesn’t evaporate, creating explosive fumes in the tank like gas. the following were actually taken out of my $5 guide available at www agua-luna com

    Chemically

    1. You’ll need a 6inch x 1ft schedule 40 pvc pipe. With pvc cement glue a cap on the bottom and use a screw on cap for the top. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, screwing in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).

    2. Now crunch up a couple aluminum cans (beer cans, soda cans etc) and drop them into the pvc pipe, along with a couple cups of lye (Red Devil drain opener has lye in it, some Clorox and Drano’s do to).

    3. Then simply add water, screw on the top and wait a few minutes.

    What happens in simplicity is that aluminum and lye don’t really get along so they battle, and as always the innocent civilians (water H2O) that the most casualties, by giving up its hydrogen and oxygen. This then builds up in the void of the pipe and is ready to be vented into your engine, by opening the valve. You may need to start your engine on gas then switch it off after the hydrogen starts burning.

    Electrical is a bit easier then Chemically.

    1. Simply take a small solar panel 1.5 amps is what I use ($9 at harborfreight.com), connect the 2 wires from the panel +- to 2 conductors (carbon cores of batteries work well, just be careful removing it from the jacket), but any conductive material will work ie. Copper, aluminum, steel, etc.

    2. Drop the wires into a water tank (I use 55gal drums), make sure they don’t touch each other.

    3. Drill a small hole (1/4inch or so) in the side close to the top, screwing in a small copper shut off valve. Place a few feet of stranded (food grade is good) flex hose to the valve and into the air intake of your engine (carburetor or fuel injections).

    4. Then simply add water, screw on the top cap and wait.

    After a few hours tiny bubbles will form and rise off one conductor (that’s hydrogen) and even smaller bubbles that just looks like foam will rise off the other (oxygen). I don’t remember which likes the positive and which likes the neg hydrogen or the oxygen.

    The third method is more complicated and is what I use for my vehicles. It’s just a modified Joe’s Cell, there’s a step by step DIY guide available to walk you threw the process here www agua-luna com

    It also covers the other 2 methods described in more detail.

    www agua-luna com

    Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

    Dan Martin

    Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World... Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY... All With Just One Click of A Mouse...For more info Visit:

    www AGUA-LUNA com

    Stop Global Warming!!!

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