On May 15th Ellen Degeneres aired her “Green” show where they gave away a free hybrid Toyota Prius car, interviewed Cameron Diaz, and featured 16 pedal power bicycle generators that we built for Global Inheritance who booked this event.
(Click here to see the YouTube video clip of the show.)
Setting up for the show took a few hours. Luckily we were able to find enough bikes to rent from a bicycle shop in Indio. There were small 12-volt lead acid batteries in the black boxes shown below. The people on the bikes charged the 12-volt DC batteries which in turn provided power to the items that were hooked up to them.
Materials to build one runs about $200 to $300, depending on how resourceful you are. All you need to do is pick up a few parts at your local auto parts store, bike store, and hardware store.
Put on your do-it-yourself hat and put together a pedal power generator for your living room!