Having met Minima at the Greenman last summer we were inspired to do an event with them on London’s Southbank, just next to the wheel! In case you’ve never heard of them, Minima are an amazing four piece who do audacious 21st-Century interpretation of the images of silent and avant-garde film.

Although it was a bitterly cold night, we managed to get an audience of passers-by to make enough power to show the amazing Harold Lloyd film – Safety Last. It was a great success and has inspired us to develop the idea of Minima vs. Electric Pedal further.

The CIAO! Ark

650 Staff, students and parents of Tupton Hall Secondary School along with local primary schools came together to not only celebrate the achievements of science, but to raise money for sport relief UNICEF and other charities. We worked with the Craig bell who is a member of Tupton Hall’s science faculty on coming up pedalled powered installations such as smoothie making, workshops, dance mats, Scalextric and of course the mini power station to power the main stage. All of this went towards a ten hour energy marathon which kept the bands playing all day raising over £2000 as well as generating just over a Kilo-watt hour between them! It was a very long day but really satisfying!

You can see some video footage of the event here.

Share a lightbulb moment with Electric Pedals

Electric Pedals is all about energy appreciation.

As seen on BBC1′s Human Power Station, Electric Pedals are renowned experts in the world of pedal-power.

We run workshops and events in any location without a mains supply and without the drone of a generator constantly running; only the gentle whirr of bicycle wheels and the satisfaction of human exertion!

Pedal-power connects strangers together in an electrifying way; everyone working side by side to provide power for amazing events.

Electric Pedals is powered mostly by tea and biscuits.

One kilowatt-hour

One kil·o·watt-hour

[kil-uh-wot-ou^uhr, -ou-er]

–noun

a unit of energy, equivalent to the energy transferred or expended in one hour by one kilowatt of power; approximately 1.34horsepower-hours. Abbreviation: kWh, kwhr

-energy density

coal power plants obtain approximately 1 kW·h per half kilogram of burned coal

-human activities

equivalent to 1200 electric shaves, slice 100 loafs of bread, dry your hair 15 times, 4 nights watching telly, listen to same CD 15 times, use a small refrigerator for 24 hours, 20 microwave meals, drill 250 holes, 4 evenings of light with 60 W incandescent lamps or 20 evening of light with 11 W compact fluorescent light, 15 family meals for four, 36 cups of tea, a roundtrip of 3 miles or less in your car with your lights, heater, and wipers running, roughly the power you could get from one human servant per day

We finally finished the pedal-powered smoothie maker. We wanted to build a smoothie maker that was not mechanically attached to a bicycle like tradition smoothie makers; rather ours relies on a generator to motor principle which means that even kids as young as five can attach their own bike to the generator. There is an acrylic panel at the front so that kids can see what’s going on inside. We tested it today at Tim’s daughter’s birthday party and it went down a storm, smoothies just taste better when you ‘make’ them yourself!

Flying there and back will burn approx 240,000 litres of aviation fuel and use 12,000 kWh per passenger*.

Pedalling at our sedate 50 watt rate, we would have to pedal for 240,000 hours each to generate the equivalent energy, that’s about 27 years and 4 months of constant pedalling.

*Figures from the excellent Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air by David MacKay which is available to read online for free.

The CIAO! Ark

We were invited to the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford for one of many meetings with the Children’s International Arts Organisation who has taken on an ambitious task of building an Ark which will be designed with involvement from many of the local schools. To quote the source – “CIAO! Ark is an innovative and ambitious arts and science project that will culminate in a large scale public art installation in central Oxford in June 2010. If you were sailing away on an Ark to create a low carbon future, what would you take with you and what would you leave behind?”. Electricpedals have been asked to consult on the energy requirements for the Ark which is due to set sail in June 2010!