Exercise your way to good health, low power bills in Ahmedabad

If you are one of those people who spend a few hours in the gym, you will appreciate the value of hard work. Now, an initiative by Gujarat Vidyapith shows that staying healthy can literally help you generate power. Vidyapith authorities had come up with an innovative mechanism called ‘cycle to generate power’ nearly three years ago to ensure uninterrupted supply of clean energy to its hostels and simultaneously take care of its students’ health.
‘Cycle to generate power’ is operational from a custom-made bicycle, jointly designed by Vidyapith students and faculty three years ago. 

This Pune-based model was modified and installed on the campus by professor and HoD of the Science Instrumentation Centre at Vidyapith, Dharmendra Kadia, and his assistants. “Though it is based on the Pune model, we made several modifications according to Gujarat and the situation here,” Kadia said.

As compared to the Pune bicycle which requires fast pedaling for generating power, Kadia and his team changed the generator so that both fast as well as slow cycling produce power. “A youngster can pedal faster and produce power in lesser time than a senior citizen who pedals slower,” Kadia said.

While the Pune model is being used only to generate power for tube lights or bulbs, bicycles in Vidyapith are used to generate
power for lights, sound system, washing machines, water fountain and more.

The institution has installed this unique system in their PG boys’
hostel and it is being installed in the girls’ hostel too. The model has also been replicated in Eklavya School.

The boys’ hostel is lit by 1-2 watt LED lights, which are powered either by solar energy or by generating power through bicycling. “We cycle for one hour everyday in the morning and generate power which gets stored in the battery. In this manner, we are able to generate power as well as do exercise,” said Sandip Varasda, a first-year student at Vidyapith.

Another student, Meru Thakor, added: “We have eight bicycles in our hostel and each of these is attached to one battery. So when we pedal for an hour in the morning, the power gets stored in the battery, which is then utilised to light the LED lights for nearly 6-7 hours.” The approximate cost of one such bicycle is Rs10,000, which includes cost of the bicycle, battery, dynamo, controller and light, as well as fitting and hardware charges.

The bicycle can also be modified to pump water from an underground tank as well as watering lawns and gardens, and spraying pesticides and insecticides in farms. This model can be easily replicated in corporate houses, residential societies and even educational institutions.

The Oorja Park on Vidyapith campus consists of all these bicycles and the various ways in which they can be used. Besides these cycles, the park also has on display solar powered street light, solar dryer, solar cooker, solar water distillation tank to receive distilled water, solar cooker but with a parabolic dish and
solar lantern.