Does anyone know of a way to cheaply generate one's own electricity? Anything like a bicycle that you can peddle and that creates just that extra little bit of electricity that is necessary to recharge your mobile phone or power a small radio. I am surprised that no one is specializing in this niche market. Any device that can help you independently power appliances in your own home will definitely have a huge market share as soon as people hear about it and can afford it.
A windmill could be modified to make a some extra electricity. We have one and it spins all the time. In the Texas heat, I always think about solar power. How awesome would that be! And we may just do it some day. If you don't use all the electricity, you can sell it to the electric company.
I am interested in the genaration of my own alternative electric energy generation process. However, the hinderance to my achieving this goal is the huge cost for acquiring the equipment to enable the generation activity, therefore, I may have to consider gradually procuring the equipment bit by bit over an extended period of time.
Actually, there are ways to generate your own electricity. Domestic bio gas or small scale solar power can generate electricity for free. The only money you will have to spend for generating electricity from bio gas or solar is the installation charge. Once installed, you get free electricity. There is almost zero maintenance cost for couple of years.
In the past, when I had more money, I was looking into buying a solar panel to hook up to my garden fountain. My fountain has since broken, and I'm indoors mostly right now because it's so hot out, but I would definitely like to purchase a few solar panels in the future for projects such as that one. I also saw an advertisement (one of those seen on TV things) for a motion detector floodlight that is solar powered, and I'd like to get a few of those in the future, also. Not having to borrow a drill to install it would be nice (it had some sort of self sticking mechanism), and not having to climb up a ladder to change batteries would also be great.
We have been looking for ways to free us from being dependent on the electric company. However, it seems that the alternative energy is not that good when it comes to reliability. As a friend who is an electrical engineer said, if the solar power is too to its claims then buildings would start using solar power if it can save them money. But the truth is the opposite, solar power is more expensive. With wind power, that is not practical for a household. What I see is our total dependence on the electric company for our power supply.
I noticed that too, I watched this guy on youtube create a charger for his bicycle. It was super cool, it made additional use of his bike. He rides to work for about 30 minutes, and that charge was enough to get him about 30 to 40 percent on his phone. Like many people do, they'll wake up and realize thy forgot to charge their phone. I don't know why people allow themselves to forget that, but I don't. I would invest in some sort of solar charger that can charge a 20mah portable battery pack. Or even get a deep cycle battery for that matter and you have free electricity for many things.
To be honest, beyond solar power, I wouldn't have the slightest clue! If I had the money required, I'd invest in a small-medium solar power plant and generate enough for myself and would sell the rest to the government because we're in severe shortage of power here. Which begs the question, in a country where the sun shines almost 365 days a year, why has the government not seriously considered exploring solar power, instead of importing electricity from neighbouring South Africa. Sometimes you have to wonder where the law makers' heads are at....grr!!
I have thought about doing this with my own solar panels, but I am not that handy or savvy. For me I might just buy some solar powered backpacks and just charge my laptop that way. I am looking to spend under $200 to do this. Anyone know of any brands?
There are many innovations nowadays geared to generating electricity. The principle of electromagnetic induction is easy to apply since you only require a strong magnet and coils of wire and a cheap source of motion to make the wires go round the magnet. This could be wind or water power or even rotating wheels when one is riding a bicycle. In my country, there is an electricity generating parastatal that acts as a monopoly and one requires a licence to generate paid electricity.
