Occupy Wall Street Will Soon Survive On Pedal Power

Gothamist

Yesterday, the FDNY and NYPD raided Zuccotti Park and confiscated Occupy Wall Street's "generators and fuel from Zuccotti that posed a fire safety threat." Even the biofuels, man! But cycling advocacy group Times Up! energy-mapped the whole park and determined it would take 11 pedal-powering generators to fuel the movement, at the total cost of around $8,000.  Apparently, five of those special bikes are being assembled right now, in addition to the one that already existed in the park. We're still trying to determine whether or not the generator-bikes were donated or paid for by the movement's coffers, but that means only five more to go. Now the protesters just need a giant retractable dome that keeps the wind and rain out.

Comments

[Bob Armstrong]

China is waking up:
Five Thousand Chinese students protest over quick rising cafeteria food prices(5:46)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz7WWUlad7w&feature=feedu
From the youtube description: " This is not the first regional action , Foshan, Changsha, Wenzhou, Zhaoqing,
etc. are all unrest, but the blackout."
Welcome to the99%, China!

[DailyBail]

New York authorities have confiscated generators and fuel from their camp in Lower Manhattan, citing fire safety concerns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pArET3uUnEY

[S. Gompers]

Necessity is the mother of invention...

[Mark]

The people powering the bikes breath out CO2. The food they consume is much more expensive on a $/BTU basis than a gas powered generator. My guess as a mechanical engineer is that on a pounds of CO2/KWhr basis, the gas generator puts out less CO2 than the human on the bike and does so less expensively.

[S. Gompers]

But pedaling it is not a "fire" hazard Mark, speaking as an electrical engineer and one with a background in emergency services. And yes it is a bullshit excuse, they are trying to make it hard on them.

It is a siege tactic.

[ETM]

Ok Mark, let's examine that vague supposition.

this site: http://scienceshareware.com/bicycle-generator-faq.htm#efficient claims a 25% efficiency for humans (so if you power your laptop at 80 Watts, you're burning up 240 Watts).

I found another site that says for "hard work" (sadly can't find a number connected to actual power output) a typical human will exhale 0.3 - 0.4 meters^3/hour. Let's assume that 240 Watts of work is "hard work". This is the weak point in my analysis if anyone can dig up better ways to calculate human efficiency.

I also find a statement that 1 gallon of gas releases ~ 14 lbs of CO2, which at STP (standard temperature and pressure) is about 140 feet^3 = 4 cubic meters.

Efficiency of modern portable generators is pretty similar across the board, one place quoted a 5000 Watt generator burning 1/3 of a gallon per hour.

So let's say we want to produce a standard unit of 1000 Watts. That human will produce 1.2 - 1.5 cubic meters of CO2 in an hour. The generator (assuming gas consumption scales linearly, which it roughly does) will produce a smaller amount: .26 cubic meters.

I don't think the argument is that people are more efficient than gas-powered motors, but that with people power you're likely to be MUCH LESS WASTEFUL. If I have to power my washingmachine, I'm not going to put that energy anywhere but into the washer. If I can just switch on a generator, I may not even be using the full 5000 Watts, and I could jsut let the thing run for no good reason. Plus, when the city takes them away I'd like an alternative that is not a "fire hazard".

All in all though, I'm a bit surprised the human numbers don't come out better, and I'm by no means confident in this back-of-the-envelope analysis.

[Texas Dar]

"Off Topic"................Did the Government Let Brian Terry Die to Save an Illegal Alien?

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http://floydreports.com/did-the-government-let-brian-terry-die-to-save-an-illegal-alien/?utm_source=Floyd+Reports+List&utm_campaign=7261eef420-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email