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| Pedal and hand cranked generators may seem like a good alternative energy option for an emergency, but are they? |
In terms of emergency and disaster preparedness, solar power, wind power, micro-hydro power and even crank/pedal power generation are some of the more popular options people consider these days. But, as you can see from the title of this post, we at Equip2Survive feel strongly that one of these methods for generating power in an emergency is actually an absolutely terrible option to rely in for generating power for a number of reasons: manual pedal or crank generators.
There are lots of pedal power generators available today marketed as viable emergency power options, and there are even a number of online tutorials showing you how to make these types of generators yourself designed to be powered by your bicycle. Do yourself a favor: Don't waste your time or money on any of these. Keep reading and we'll demonstrate to you exactly why you should steer clear of these types of power generators for your preparedness plan.
A few years ago my brother and his wife went on an amazing adventure down the Yukon River in a home made "raft"/"houseboat" that they built for specifically for this expedition. You can learn more about their adventure, down the Yukon River, their boat, their gear and more at yukonrivertrip.com. I share their experience in the context of this topic because of some important lessons that they learned in terms of choices they made for generating power while on their trip.
While preparing for their adventure my brother considered a number of options for generating electricity for their trolling motor, their camera gear, computer and other electronic devices that they wanted to use to document their expedition. My brother researched solar power, wind power and pedal power generator options. Based on some really bad information that he got from a solar company, he feared that the light conditions in Canada and Alaska would be insufficient to effectively generate the power that they would need to power their gear. To be honest, he probably didn't consider wind power as much as he should have. He ultimately chose a pedal power generator to replenish his battery bank and devices... a choice he would end up regretting immensely.
Once my brother and his wife embarked on their much anticipated journey, there were portions of their adventure that turned out to be vastly more challenging than they expected. They expected to battle challenging currents and obstacles on the river itself, but what they did not expect was how grueling the Lake Laberge portion of their trip would be. They expected Lake Laberge to be a calm and leisurely section of the trip where they would have time to slowly traverse the lake and enjoy the scenery. They could not have been more wrong.
Lake Laberge turned out to be an unforgiving and relentless force that thrust them into a week long life-threating battle against enormous waves and vicious winds in a boat that caught wind like a giant wooden sail. Their powerful trolling motor, only spent half of the time in the water when in use because of the waves, and the motor ate through the three deep cycle marine battery bank like it was a box Girl Scout cookies. At the end of each of these grueling days battling the relentless waves and winds on the lake, they had absolutely no energy left to put into pedaling for hours to recharge their battery bank. For this reason they barely used their expensive pedal generator and they almost entirely neglected recharging their battery bank.
And this, my friends, is exactly why any power generation option that requires manual/physical labor to produce power is an absolutely terrible idea. Pedal/crank power requires two things that are both precious resources that you can't afford to expend on creating power: time and energy. In a survival situation, every second and every ounce of energy counts. You typically can't spare any of either. There are all sorts of tasks that you must complete to stay alive and your time and energy should be spent on those... and when you aren't using your time and energy to complete a critical task, you should be resting! You would be wise to choose energy generating options that don't require any extra time or effort from you to generate power.
For the sake of this article, we are going to oversimplify a bit and compartmentalize power generation options into two simple categories: 1) Active Power Generation and 2) Passive Power Generation. "Active" power generation in this case is where you have to apply physical effort to a device to generate a charge to your power storage systems (battery, battery bank, device batteries, etc.). Examples of this would include pedal power generators, hand crank devices, etc. "Passive" power generation is where you set up your power supply and let it do all of the work for you. Examples of this would include solar panels, wind turbines and micro-hydro generators. You set them up and they do the work for you while you spend your precious time and energy doing other critical tasks. The advantages of "passive power generation" are fairly obvious, but for some reason many people still think pedal and crank power generating devices are a good idea and incorporate them into their preparedness plans. Don't.
Since my brother and his wife's adventure and because of the important lessons they learned on this trip, my brother has further researched solar power and has learned quite a bit more about solar energy... and now he knows how truly versatile solar power is. He has learned that solar panels actually are an extremely viable option for power generation even as far north as Alaska... and we have even discovered since his trip that you can actually effectively generate power with a solar panel even without sunlight! He also realizes in retrospect that the high winds they experienced on their trip on Lake Laberge could have been harnessed into powerful and effective power generation for their power needs with a quality wind turbine... but the point is moot now.
So the lesson to be taken from this example is it is always a good idea to diversify your off grid power generation plan by combining several methods of harnessing energy at once (solar for days that are sunny but not windy, wind turbines for days that are windy but not sunny, and micro-hydro if you are fortunate enough to have reliable and viable water source to do the job)... but we advocate that you not include in your plan a power generation option that requires you expend physical energy and precious time to generate power. While a hand crank flashlight or radio is acceptable in a pinch, do yourself a favor and stay away from pedal power and crank power generators for inclusion in your preparedness plan!
Thoughts? Opinons? Agree? Disagree? Let us know what you think! Leave your comments below!
