human power(force) needed by generator to produce electtricity

[romesh]

hello everyone..
my question is,
can we generate electricity using human power?if yes,then how the human power can be measured.
for ex-if a human with average power turning the pedals of bycycle,which is connected to generator of 1KW.
how much power or force does the human need to move the pedals?
and in what terms the power or force will be measured?
please help..me with this question.

[LeungWilley]

Hi romesh,
I think this article from NPR may be of some help.
http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/1 ... ith-a-bike
In regards to your other questions, power will be measured in Watts or Kilowatts.

Please let us know if there's anything else that we can help with.
Willey

[romesh]

hello sir,
thank you for your answer but i needed some other information.
i want to know is it possible that the turbine in power plant can be turned by humans through cycle
if yes how many men will be needed to turn the turbine.

[LeungWilley]

Hi Romesh,
Sorry to give you an engineering answers but your answers depends on the size of the power plant (and thereby turbine).
Let's work through an example, for a typical small town (say around 5000 household and each household have a 2 kilowatt average demand), you will need a power plant capable of generating 10,000 KiloWatt.)

If you use the figure from the article of each person capable of generating 100 Watts on a bike. You are going to need 100,000 people to power this town. That means that each household is going to have a minimum of 20 people and they all need to be peddling at the power plant 24 hours a day.

Is it possible? Yes. Is it practical or likely? Probably not.
Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!
Willey

[romesh]

hello sir,
thanks for your help.
i have few more questions.
if you don"t mind answering them.
1)when a human rides a bicycle and power which he puts on the pedals from his leg,what will that power called and in what terms it will be measured?
2)is there any formula or method by which we measure the force or the power that the turbine of power plant needs to rotate?(for ex-the turbine of hydro-power plant rotates because of the force and power of water,so in what term we will measure the force or power created by water?
waiting for your answers...
thank you.

[LeungWilley]

Hi Romesh,
In response to your question:
1)The power that's being transferred from the pedals to the wheel will be measured in Watts and is typically referred to as "kinetic energy."

2) Hmm... I think we may have a misunderstanding in regards to 2. A turbine will only produce power that's being demanded on the system, i.e. whatever power is produced by the turbine will need to be consumed by a load of some type such as a light bulb, heat, motor, etc... By the design of the turbine, there are maximum power that a particular turbine can produce. Please note that there are "machine losses" that will need to be accounted for such as frictional losses on the bearings, etc... and the mass of the turbine (inertia). All power measurement are measured in Watts.

Just out of curiosity, is there another unit of measurement that you are hoping to use?
Good Luck and please let us know if there's anything else we can do to help.
Willey