The big things with this method is that you need a battery bank for something like this, and you need an inverter. Something like a windmill can power and charge a number of batteries, but to be able to use it for your house you need the inverter for a standard plug in and to convert from amps to watts. Great Idea though. Knowing how to set something up properly is the a great start.

I've thought too about the battery bank and inverter. Many of us likely have power converters and battery banks kicking around and don't know it.

1/ If you have a UPS battery backup system for your computer, it is already both of these. http://www.staples.ca/en/APC-BACK-UPS-BX1000G-CA-XS-1000VA/product_820870_2-CA_1_20001

2/ If you have a battery Pak /Booster, it too can even contain both http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/automotive/batteries-accessories/power-packs.html

3/ If you have a car power adapter /inverter , big or small http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/search-results.html?searchByTerm=true&q=power+inverters

All of these above listed items could be used to convert your peddle power into an electrical source. And if your just sitting around in the dark, waiting for the lights to come back on, peddling would give one something to do anyways while charging some essential item.

Just more food for thought!

A 60 amp car alternator is too much for a human to power. I've tried it.
You get the gear ratio right to generate enough speed on the alt for it to kick in and it's too hard to peddle for more than a minute.
Even a 3 hp lawnmower engine works hard, humans can do about 1/4 hp continuous.

For the kind of output you'll get you're just as well off with a few solar panels that work while you do something more productive.

I was working on the assumption that no matter what the output, the battery would store the energy. Seems that is the principle folks use when designing their small windmills. I know they use small electric motors for them such as treadmill motors.

I was considering using the alternators for a vertical drum style windmill as they'd capture larger volume of air. Otherwise, I guess they can still be just spare alternators as they are now. 😯

Up to a certain rpm an alternator will spin freely, then cut in. I guess that's why they use a PM motor much like older vehicles used a generator.

Up to a certain rpm an alternator will spin freely, then cut in. I guess that's why they use a PM motor much like older vehicles used a generator.

I don't profess to know much in the alternator department but have had many apart due to working on small aircraft mostly. Many use the same alternators found in our cars. None I have had apart ever incorporated a slip clutch such as the engines cooling fan and air conditioning unit has. But by simply testing the alternator with the use of even a cheap $10.00 VOM meter, individuals could easily determine if their system would work at an early stage.

The point here is again to offer possible alternatives to people in potential times of crisis. Deflating one's possible options isn't near as good as maybe offering possible get-arounds to improve their odds of success instead. I already own 3 generators(but one is also a portable welder), so I'm really not doing this for myself too much. Yet if gas were to become scarce here (as I live off the beaten path), I too would need preset measures set up in advance.

Peddling isn't efficient but it may charge your small batteries to reach out for help when nothing else can. This is but an option. Most would likely have a bicycle kicking around and maybe they could steal an alternator from a dead car to attain power where there was none before. Find a subject that fits your interests and pitch in as the perfessor on Gilligan's Island seemed to create many neat and handy items throughout the TV series.

There is only one way to find out how well it works or not...try it!
The internet is a great source for ideas, but people tend to spend WAY too much time arguing over whether or not something they saw on YouTube will or won't work!
Hook it up and spin it...let others know.

Interesting topic

I tried it years ago. Maybe I was doing something wrong.
I had a GM 60 amp(one wire) rigged to an exercise bike, geared so that at a fast peddle it would be the equivalent of fast idle in a car.
I didn't have a battery in the system, just a 12v headlight as a load. Once you got it spinning fast enough to make 12v the alternator would cut in and start making power. The light came on but at that point it became so hard to peddle that I couldn't keep it up for more than a minute or so. Tried it with a tail light with the same result.
I don't think a battery would have changed anything, the thing has to spin a certain speed to make 12v and then it need more ooomph than I had.

You can run the alternator on a small gas engine of 3 hp or so but some research told me a human can only do 1/4 hp.
You can do peddle power but nobody uses an alternator, just too much capacity for a human.

Well there ya go!
There has been so much stuff from the internet that just gets regurgitated.
Someone reads...starts a blog...and rewrites what they have read without checking.
I'm sure there is lots of useful stuff out there, but you HAVE to try things for yourself.
One perfect example is the famous brick rocket stove...great idea right?
NOT!
They may be OK to heat up a cup or two of water, but if you want any kind of lasting flame, be prepared to babysit that thing like a misbehaving 3 year old!
How did I figure that out? I tried it!
Much better results from a fire pit and an old BBQ grill.
More wood needed? Ya, you bet, but that is life.

From what I've seen and read, a proper designed rocket stove should produce a roaring fire somewhat to considered functioning properly and earning the name as it sounds somewhat like that of a rocket. You know what it is like when you blow into a fire? This aspect is produced in the stove's design, but without the aid of a fan.

I've heard many proclaim that their designs sort of achieve that which isn't the same thing. If the stove doesn't burn hot, it produces more ash and fowls up quicker too. Most of the brick stoves seem to have too big a venturi to do this properly. Having a variable venturi allows adjustment to achieving this effect, but it still has to be very close to the flames to function properly. i know this only by using wood stoves alot and trying to achieve this same effect when messing around with it too.

I haven't built an alternator peddle bike to perceive if my ideas would work. Maybe someday I'll build one but it isn't high on my priority list. As one who has built alot of equipment though, I think this is a viable plan but the alternator choice could indeed be the main area for final design flaw. Some folks have simply used treadmill motors to reproduce electrical power. Whatever works. The point being that since the rest of the concept is functional, swap motors then until you find one best suited to your individual needs. But just because an alternator was attached to a 200 HP car motor doesn't mean that is what is required to drive it. Spin any of them without a belt on and you'll see they turn with little to no effort. It will of course get tougher as you gear them up to run at 200-300 RPM, but it seems doable just the same.

Gearing is the key to the alternator's efficiency and so I'd then try to utilize the gear ratios in a 10 speed or 20 speed bike. Between the final drive and the alternator, I'd use a heavy flywheel as once this mass is in motion , it's momentum would sustain an even pace as one paused and such. This concept is easier for me to produce compared to many others as I own a machine shop, but you get the idea. I'd never opt for this other than an emergency system as it's efficiency under human power is likely still a waste of calories compared to overall gains. This is an option instead for those who didn't buy solar panels and have no other means of recharging their emergency batteries and such.

One perfect example is the famous brick rocket stove...great idea right?
NOT!
They may be OK to heat up a cup or two of water, but if you want any kind of lasting flame, be prepared to babysit that thing like a misbehaving 3 year old!
How did I figure that out? I tried it!
Much better results from a fire pit and an old BBQ grill.
More wood needed? Ya, you bet, but that is life.

Isn't the point of the cooking-type rocket stoves to create a fast, hot efficient burn for quickly heating food without using much food, and in some cases without having to heat up the space around it?

If you want to, you can slow it down a little by creating a flue of bricks or metal in front of your intake, but you'll have to snip sticks to the exact size you want. You can also try adding larger diameters of wood that limit the airflow, but every time you do that, you slow down how fast it will boil water or make eggs.

For sustained cooking (wheat, potatoes) you can create an oven-type hood (leaving an exhaust vent near the back or you slow the fire down and end up with smoke in your face) or a dutch-oven crock-pot-type double boiler, but both are working on the theory of holding heat that was generated and may require subsequent burns.

For slow cooker efficiency, it's easier to use a Dakota pit, but that's not an average patio project for people who have neighbors, or there are bags you can make or buy to stick a pot in after it's reached boiling.

For heat, you want a rocket stove mass heater (rocket stove = two things, like JO, SIP, MAG and so many other things in our lives).
Mass heaters are kind of a "hot air boiler" type of system: http://www.richsoil.com/rocket-stove-mass-heater.jsp
The rocket stove part can be converted to larger chunks of wood, but again, it's meant to burn pretty quickly and then use conduction and insulation to maintain warmth. There's a reason the lady in the picture has a kettle up there, not a Sunday roast.

Gearing is the key to the alternator's efficiency and so I'd then try to utilize the gear ratios in a 10 speed or 20 speed bike.

I don't suppose you happen to know of a formula or chart (even a book) that can help with gearing ratios (kind of general, not just for pedal power but also if you wanted to do the mini water wheels or weather vane-type windmills to just trickle charge a battery or bank.

I'm looking for almost an equivalency chart. If your set came with these two sizes, would these two work instead. If wind/water is moving this speed, you want it in second-third-sixth-eighth.
Know of anything like that that exists? Something written in layman's English, not jargon?
(Electrical is not my thing, but I sent you data left and right for food, man.)

Gearing is the key to the alternator's efficiency and so I'd then try to utilize the gear ratios in a 10 speed or 20 speed bike.

I don't suppose you happen to know of a formula or chart (even a book) that can help with gearing ratios (kind of general, not just for pedal power but also if you wanted to do the mini water wheels or weather vane-type windmills to just trickle charge a battery or bank.

I'm looking for almost an equivalency chart. If your set came with these two sizes, would these two work instead. If wind/water is moving this speed, you want it in second-third-sixth-eighth.
Know of anything like that that exists? Something written in layman's English, not jargon?
(Electrical is not my thing, but I sent you data left and right for food, man.)

Gear Ratios are not near as complex as folks often imagine it is. Sprockets make it easy with simple tooth count when they each mesh directly together. Pulleys are measured by the diameter of the circle or other words, the outside diameter's surface area. Low compression north American engines idle around 600-800 RPM and the generators keep the fully vehicle charged by producing around 13.4 volts at a likely 45 amps or so of draw. If you could do the same, you'd be producing enough energy to run your car at night with the heater or AC running full, head lights on stereo blaring with all that juice. But your not going to achieve this measure so don't expect having to peddle like an idiot either.

The pulley is around 7" at the crank and maybe 4" at the alternator, so it's likely 2.5:1 ratio and thus the alternator is doing 900 rpm for full power. If you peddle 30 rpm and were geared 20:1, you'd then have the alternator doing about 600 rpm. 2/3's of 900 RPM should make about 30 amps but I'm guessing that even if a fella could achieve 1/3 of that , we'd all be happy.....