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The problem with this side of the tread (re: human powered
electronics) is forgetting how much human power it takes to maintain,
say, a hundred watt bulb. I googled it yesterday to see if I could
find a simple way to equate human power (eg. calorie's burned) to
electrical units (watts or watts/hour).
I didn't find what I was looking for, but my favorite was a clip from
youtube showing a nicely designed system so you can power your
laptop. The narrator says, "So Erin can surf the web or send emails
while pedaling." Right. I'm a pretty good typist while pedaling......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLaaunce4JQ&feature=related
The other was an Ellen Degeneres show where she had 7 or 8 spin
cyclists over in the corner pedaling away....to power 1 monitor and a
'light' although they didn't show the light. Wow....one whole
monitor.....and it only took 8 people in great shape to keep it
going.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czvL7V3HgwQ
There would seem to be two conceptual issues with most human powered
exhibits (that attempt anything beyond modeling how electricity can
be generated). First, there is often a disconnect - we want visitors
to leave thinking, "Wow, it's hard work, and a lot of it, to keep a
light bulb lit." When what they seem to leave with is, "Cool, I made
a light bulb light up." The other disconnect is one of scale: We
ask them to power a single (or several devices) and then somehow
expect them to abstract that into macro environment, eg, a whole
house, not to mention a neighborhood, a city, a state, etc.....
Wish I had the answer to how to make these kinds of exhibits more
germane, but.....
jeff c
(and yes, there are way,way,way too many suv's here in the Dallas Ft.
Worth area)
Just my two cents worth.....
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