Revisiting Potenco's Innovative Pull-Cord Generator
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 09.14.07
In an ideal world, most of our energy needs would be met by cheap, simple, yet elegant devices like Potenco's revolutionary pull-cord generator (PCG). We've raved about this power generator before and - during our brief romp through this year's WIRED Nextfest - had the chance to meet Colin Bulthaup, the startup's ambitious CEO, and test the device out for ourselves.
With very little effort, we were quickly able to generate enough energy to power half an hour of talk time on a cell phone and 2 hours' worth of play time on an iPod Shuffle (see below the fold for a side-by-side comparison). According to Bulthaup, a single minute of pulling generated enough energy to also power 1 hour of LED flashlight use or to take 35 pictures with a conventional Nikon SLR camera. Its output typically ranges between 12W and 15W, with a maximum of 20W.
Now that it has successfully been incorporated into the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's (OLPC) XO "$100 laptop," Bulthaup told us that the company's next objective was bringing it over to Bangladesh and, from there, other developing countries in Asia. And though it is mainly intended as a cheap power source for individuals living in off-grid situations, Bulthaup eventually hopes to see it used in a broad array of portable electronic devices in developed countries, such as the U.S.
See also: ::Potenco: Powering Possibilities
Great product.
Why not attach a variation oof these to door swings? IN public spaces, doors use a hydrolic system for slowly closing the door. all that energy is lost as dissapated energy. why not design a door system that puts energy back in the building at every door pull? Not a whole lot of savings on one door, but add them to an entire office building, or every door in a neighbourhood, and we are talkign some serrioius wattage.
A thought for any out there who know the technical side of things and are not just idea people like me...
ala Tommie Jefferson (former prez).
Visitors to his home would harass him for his poor engineering skills since the front gate to his property was somewhat difficult to open and close.
Until, that is, he thanked them for pumping water from his well to the holding tank.
When I saw Bulthaup at MIT in the Spring he was saying that the Potenco generator might be available for sale on its own by late next year. I'd buy one. One square foot of solar panel, a Potenco string pull, and an efficient generator for my bike and I'd be very happy.
Gaviotas, Colombia developed a seesaw to pump water and PlayPump (http://www.playpumps.org/) is manufacturing a children's playground round-about that also pumps water in Africa with great success. Glad to see that Tommy Jeff was there earlier with his garden gate. Can you imagine what a conversation between Jefferson and Franklin must have been like?
I agree with the contribution suggesting that there should be a designe for hinge fittings, etc. How often do parents whine about the fridge being raided, people slamming doors, etc. If energy alternatives are going to be convincing they must be convenient. I live in an oak woodland in Wales(log cabin naturally) and have often thought that doors could afford to be heavier, surely such a system would power enough energy for incoming phone calls if your on a mobile, or perhaps secure bathroom lighting for night-time operation.
Other uses:
Hook up to a rowing machine for a workout.
Build an exercise machine around this.
Add a larger "spool" and have it set up to that you can try to climb a rope.
DDP and Dan,
There's no price for this thing, but do you really want to pay say an extra $50 for each door plus the cost of wiring to generate a tiny amount of electricity? If you made doors really hard to open you might generate say 100W for 5 seconds, but that's an infinitesimal amount of energy; if my math is right you'd need 7200 people to open the door each day to generate a kiloWatt-hour, which costs 10 cents from the power company.
(The display shows this thing generating 1763 joules in 10 seconds, which is 176 W -- the demonstrator worked really hard! -- but that's still only 0.005 of a kWh.)
Now if you put the generator on one door and had people stand around swinging the door open and shut to get a workout, that might work, and it would be an interesting social experiment.
Revolving doors...
Enought said..
How about you make a few large ones and connect them to trees so that when the wind blows it pulls the cord. might not work all the time or everywhere, but it could have its applications.
EcOnERd
Why can I not buy one of these? I don't understand why they only offer them to "developing countries"? What about the countries that are so called "developed"? Shouldn't they also be encourage and have access to this technology to help make a difference? Surely our contributions to economies of scale will help make the technology cheaper?