After hurricane Ike I lost power for a few weeks and, bored, I decided to find a way to make power.

This was the result:

 The alternator from the electric conversion car replaced the viscous clutch mechanism in my stationary bike setup.  The alternator appears to work like a shunt-wound DC motor.  There are four electrical connections, two for an exciter coil and two for the main generating coil.  The exciter coil pulls 4 amps at 12vdc and this put so much resistance on the wheel that I could barely petal hard enough to produce four amps, with a net gain of zero.  An efficient way to regulate input power was needed, but I didn't have one.  So in a pinch I decided to connect a permanent magnet dc motor to the bike wheel as well, which operated like a generator to power the exciter coil in the alternator.  Now initial resistance was zero and built up quickly as rpms increased.  I was able to produce 2-3 amps with no input so it was all net gain (and without having a heart attack).  Unfortunately voltage was still low (~11.5) when compared to the 13.2 volts that a typical 12v car battery will show under zero load.  Even with the regulated excitation, an efficient charging circuit is also required to step up the voltage against the battery.  The power company re-connected my power (after blowing up my transformer) before I developed an improved circuit.  Perhaps I will re-visit this project later.

A bike like this can give the average person a great appreciation for how much energy is required to run their daily household appliances.  With a typical setup like this, an average human can produce electricity at a rate of 50 to 80 watts.  Considering that a hair dryer requires 1875 watts, it would take TWENTY-FOUR people on 24 bikes running 24 alternators to power just one hair dryer.