Connect a stationary bike to your electrical generator for a pedal-powered charger.
You can cut your electricity bill by building a pedal-powered generator out of a combination of commercially available and home-built components. Commercially produced pedal systems will have a motor assembly already built inside to generate electricity that you can harness and store. It is also possible to generate electricity by constructing your own pedal system using a stationary bike. Regardless of what type of pedal system you use, the rest of the components in your generator will be the same.
Instructions
1. Set up your pedal-power system. Commercial units are available fully assembled and these can connect directly to the next component of your generator system: a charge controller. If you are building your own pedal system, you will need to connect a stationary bike to a DC (direct current) motor. Attach a rear wheel sprocket to the axle of the DC motor, and you can crank the motor using the bike's existing chain system.
2. Run wiring from your DC motor or commercial pedal-generator system to a charge controller. Depending on the length and gauge of the wire used, you can solder or bolt the components together. For best results, use a 45-amp charge controller.
3. Set the charge controller to allow electrical current to the batteries when the battery charge drops below 11.7 volts and to shut off the current when the charge exceeds 14.3 volts.
4. Connect the charge controller to a bank of deep-cycle batteries. Depending on how far apart the components are and the gauge of wiring you use, you can solder the components together or use nuts and bolts to connect the wiring. The number of batteries you will need for your battery bank will depend on your power needs. A resource that can help you calculate your power needs and determine a number of batteries is the manual "Home Made Energy," which gives specific data on battery usage. Deep-cycle batteries are used in forklifts and golf carts. Facilities that use deep-cycle batteries in vehicles might let you have their old batteries for free. Supposedly "dead" batteries can be refurbished using a desulfator.
5. Connect the battery bank to an AC (alternating current) inverter using the soldering iron or nuts and bolts. The AC inverter has standard outlets in which you can plug appliances. You can also wire the AC inverter to the exterior power box of your house to connect it to the existing electrical system of your house. The industrial grade connection to the household system will require a bolted connection.
6. Crank the pedal system to charge your electrical generator. Once the system is charged, you are ready to use electricity from your new green power generator.
