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Hamster-Powered Night Light
An anonymous reader writes "Though Skippy the Hamster powers this night light by running on his excercise wheel, the same concepts and low-rpm alternator design could be applied to a school science project using different energy sources! A small wind or hydro turbine could easily power this alternator. The Otherpower.com staff thought of building a hamster-powered nightlight a couple years ago at a rather, uh, soused company Christmas party. Then recently Analise, an 8th grader from Albuquerque, NM, contacted DanF through the AllExperts.com Science For Kids forum, asking 'Can a rodent generate enough electricity to power a light by running on it's wheel?'"
I heard a theory once about getting a gym to power their lights from the people in the gym. The idea was to hook up all the bikes to a generator. I think its a good idea.
I used to have a 1.5V analogue quartz wall clock that was powered by a Crystal Set. With a 10m antenna, I could pull in enough power to run the thing 24/7.
Other things, such as LEDs and small motors, used to get hooked up to the set too.
I also found a 1930s radio speaker in a junk shop - it was in a walnut case and included a multi-tapped transformer to give the speaker numerous effective impedances from 3.4 Ohms all the way up to 2K Ohms. Set on 2K Ohms, the crystal set was easily as loud as a small battery-powered AM radio.
AT&ROFLMAO
I helped design a extremely simple wind generatior system for 3rd world countries that uses discarded 55 gallon drums and car parts as the rotor to drive a pully and modified car alternator. (we designed it so the locals can get over 80% of the parts from abandoned cars that they come across)
we have a few that have survived hurricanes easily and only threw the belt off.
most wind generators can be extremely simple with no moving parts except for the rotor (Yes, it does NOT track with the wind, as it is vertical.)
Animal power generation is certianly possible.
the key is to modify your alternator/generator to use the surplus extreme power magnets and rewind the coils so it will generate decent amperage at low rpm's by adding more coils. (making your own alternator is easy with a car strut+wheelbearing+ break rotor)
I have seen a generator that would produce almost 15 watts at 12 volts from a horse exercize merry-go-round. 2 horses generated an average of 5 watts from less than 12 dollars of parts while they mose-yed around in a circle for a couple of hours, and 99% of that cost was the magnets. certianly cheaper than any solar panels and every watt you pump into that battery is precious... It generated enough power in a small battery bank to light a workroom very well and for a few hours with a 4 watt CF flouresent lamp that makes most 40 watt bulbs look dim.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.