Personal Energy Generator, pretty cool

[anarchyale]

Just heard the piece on NPR and it sounded like a cool idea.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120236697

I'm sure we will all be doing a lot more walking in the future, and this sounds like a good way to harness the extra energy. I'm endlessly fascinated by micro-power generation of any type, and this looks like it could have potential. If they would make one that could charge a couple of AA's that would be even better. That way, as I run through the zombie wasteland, I could keep my Eotech and nightvision running as well.

I didn't see it in the article when I scanned quick, but the company has ideas of trying to scale this up a bit for use in buoy's to generate energy from wave action.

[spacecase0]

that looks like lots of fun,
but for that price, I might get solar first...

[Zac]

Just heard the piece on NPR and it sounded like a cool idea.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120236697

I'm sure we will all be doing a lot more walking in the future, and this sounds like a good way to harness the extra energy. I'm endlessly fascinated by micro-power generation of any type, and this looks like it could have potential. If they would make one that could charge a couple of AA's that would be even better. That way, as I run through the zombie wasteland, I could keep my Eotech and nightvision running as well.

I didn't see it in the article when I scanned quick, but the company has ideas of trying to scale this up a bit for use in buoy's to generate energy from wave action.

It's an interesting concept, but previous attempts have yielded power of only a few tenths of a watt at best and weighed several pounds.

A typical cell phone battery might have a capacity of 3.7V @ 1 amp-hour or 3.7 watt-hours.  Assuming this device produces 0.5 watts average power while in motion (which is very optimistic) and 100% power conversion efficiency, one would have to walk for 7.4 hours to recharge a fully discharged cell phone battery.

If it can be made small enough, it may have some application for micropower devices such as pulse rate transmitters though. 

If you want portable power without fuel, your best bet is probably either a solar panel (somewhat bulky) or a hand crank or foot pedal type generator (can be somewhat noisy).

Costo even sells them nows:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11492776&search=charger&Mo=60&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=charger&Ntt=charger&No=1&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1

Or cheaper versions at:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.24036

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3669

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.28671

[anarchyale]

I didn't look at their website for a price. I love all my portable solar stuff, and its true that it will do the heavy lifting that things like this cannot, but only when the sun shines. I see stuff like this, if part of a whole package of micro power production, as adding redundancy and alternatives. I'm looking at micro hydro for the same reason. Not a lot of power, but it runs 24/7, rain or shine. It all adds up. I wonder if they could scale this thing up or down for animals. Maybe your dog could charge the cell phone, and your goats or horses could charge bigger batteries. High tech doomsteading.