Off-Grid Blender - sorta off-topic

[Guest guest]

Good afternoon,

Roger Padvorac mentioned having looked at the suitability of blenders to

off-grid power systems. I thought I'd mention an off-grid power system we've

developed in our community bike shop. We took an old bike and mounted it on a

stand with a belt going to a pulley on a 120v DC permanent magnet motor. We use

the motor in reverse as a generator. It is a commonly unknown fact that most

120V AC appliances will run just as well on DC and often the voltage range can

vary from 70VAC on up without hurting the appliance. This system is dazzlingly

simple because there is no inverter or battery. We wire a regular outlet plug

directly to the motor and plug in any suitable UNMODIFIED AC appliance.

 

So far we have tried it on a blender (to make smoothies), a vacuum cleaner, hair

dryer and food processor. Naturally the heavier the load, the harder you have

to pedal so it's best to cut up your smoothie ingredients really fine or use

soft stuff and lots of water. I'd really like to try it out on power tools

next, that would allow us to do carpentry work in remote sites. It's really

convenient having this in your home because it's an exercise machine that

produces usable power - just like Ed Begley Jr's only MUCH simpler.

 

For the next version I'd like to mount the motor/generator on the bike luggage

rack so we can ride the bike to a place without power, then put it up on a stand

to generate power. I assume there's also a way we could put a computer UPS

(uninterruptible power supply) on the bike to store energy and drive the motor

for assistance up hills.

 

If you're interested in this idea contact me for more details.

Nick Hein

Morgantown, WV

 

PS I just use the Osterizer blender we got for a wedding present 25 years ago.