If you've had it with long chain fuels here are some alternatives: Wind powered web server, Solar powered web hosting, Pedal powered laptop plans, or just collecting scrap batteries to power things.

My Mom lives in a log cabin in the foothills of Wyoming's Wind River Mountain Range. Commercial power doesn't quite reach the cabin so she runs on a collection of solar and wind energy (when it's windy, it's WINDY!). Over the years I've experimented with a number of other power generating "tricks" one of which was a generator hooked to a bike. First off you should know that I'm at least a foot taller than Mom, so the plan was flawed from the beginning when I decided to use my old bike. I welded a bike stand together to hold the alternator, hooked to the back wheel by a large fan belt. In a fit of inspiration I filled the back wheel with cement to act as flywheel and help smooth things out. An ammeter was taped to the handlebars along with a jerry-rigged on/off switch. In another misplaced fit of inspiration I bought the largest alternator I could find at the junkyard, not considering that the energy to power it had to come from somewhere...well, someone.

I was in the Air Force at the time and on my next break drove out to Mom's to install it, evisioning all of the wonderful "free" energy she would soon be experiencing. After wiring it to the house batteries I jumped on board and the meter showed juice flowing into the house. A minute or so later it had completely drained all of my juice and I had to stop (btw, I'd been biking a few miles every day and was in good shape).

Mom then climbed on the bike and couldn't reach the pedals. The seat was put at its lowest and even then she had to partially stand, rocking from side to side like a little kid pedalling up an incline. The power generating switch was left off while Mom got the flywheel up to speed. When I reached over and turned it ON she almost flew off the bike as the alternator kicked in and the flywheel ground to a halt.

Last I saw, the bike was sitting out back by the outhouse, the cement flywheel impervious to the elements and massive enough that no one really feels like trying to lug it to the dump. In it's place we've since installed a Southwest Windpower generator and Mom gets her exercise the old fashioned way...hauling wood.

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