Hello!
Enjoying lunchtime to post this idea… before committing to the 10.000 steps goal of the day 
Working 10 meters away from home removes an essential component in our lifestyle: having to move. I sit at a desk 8h+ a day as a result. No commuting is great of course, but I see myself move less, and less.
Wind + Desk Bike = DC motor 
This #DesignTheNextBLUETTI post is about leveraging the potential of Bluetti stations and their very competent DC inputs to harvest energy from other sources than solar. This is said with mechanical/rotational sources in mind.
- The first one is just leg oil, as in “move those legs at least 1h a day”.
- The second one is abundant on rooftops, aka wind.
They both convert rotation into voltage and that’s a small R&D project we have here.
With a few spares we got from amazon, we’re attempting to upgrade the desk bike:
While the parts are rated at 300W, we could hardly push it higher than 60W, but then, that’s enough for a proof-of-concept. The thing is 12V(ish*), so good for small station, but AC300 would click on and off as it’s below its pickup threshold.
*ish: while not an accurate unit, we measured up to 18V when really pedalling hard. Not sure it’ll stand the test of time at that rate, but we’d be unable to keep up. Probably the ergonomics, not our condition of course
With one of our workstations equipped with a preexisting passive desk bike, we started to tinker to obtain a way to turn the sitting sessions in actual production. It’s all part of our research for implementing low-profile wind focus turbines.
Observe, Hubby so focused while pedalling. Notice the Bluetti under the desk.
I think he pretends to be focused, really:
Realistic suggestion for the Next Bluetti: desk bike
With a 24V DC output, one can easily expect to output 5Amps, so think 100W of continuous power. It’s not about recharging the battery, it’s more about not wasting a fraction of a renewable, and adding the “2-in-1” formula to a workout.
Ergonomics need to be really good, as humorously mentioned. While the standing bike is great, a more ergonomic approach would be the following design, better for longer cruises, favoring lower heart rates and good focused work on the posterior chain, and simply more comfortable (screen on this pic is too low for work for the record):
Next-level suggestion for the Next Bluetti: aeolian wind focus turbine
We’ve contacted the Ridgeblade guys recently. Their product is great for microgrids. But we want simple DC output, anything a medium-sized station can handle (say 48V so it’s both efficient for larger batteries, and within range for AC70).
The principle is simple, it’s like a turbocharger for wind power. Instead of operating at standard air pressure like regular windmills do, it sits atop a roof where the whole volume of air that meets your roof is compressed towards the tip, or “pinch point”:
Ridgeblade didn’t invent anything new here, and remembering the original doc of AC300, Bluetti’s been considering aeolian at least a few times (see @Selfmadestrom 's post) :
More than a few of us Bluetti users would love it.
Imagine:
- DC1 has solar.
- DC2 has an aeolian rooftop generator.
That’s a boost during sunny moments, and constant inlfux to offset standby/idle consumption, and probably more. We like the RAID-type redunancy in our work, and this fits that narrative. Engineer happy.
conclusion
We’d like to see as #DesignTheNextBLUETTI a rotation DC source, be it the deskbike, or the full-blown rooftop module!
Looks like it’s not so feasible as a static version, but it would be good to be able to utilise my pedal power whilst I am doing it anyway on my journeys.