Jason McNeil Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 What do you guys think of this Infographic I threw together? I wanted to convey that sense of 'power elation' one has when riding a decent Wheel. It's not perfect, because of the simple act of standing of the Wheel is still burning 130 Kcal/hr & if the Wheel were cruising at the same speed as the cycle, the Wh/mi would be about 20% higher as well, owing to increased wind resistance; also pretty damn rare to be able to maintain constant cruising speed on anything but a running track, etc.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmethvin Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 In his 1989 Tour de France win, Greg Lemond averaged 34mph over 15 miles. Seems like an outlier though. I don't know if it fits in a graphic like this, but running and cycling make you sweat whereas the EUC just makes you grin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mich Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 It's not really fair to compare efficiency of Electric Wheel with Metabolic Efficiency, because it omits the inefficient part electric energy generation - the power plant. Efficiency of power plants is somewhere between 30%-40%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason McNeil Posted April 3, 2016 Author Share Posted April 3, 2016 10 hours ago, mich said: It's not really fair to compare efficiency of Electric Wheel with Metabolic Efficiency, because it omits the inefficient part electric energy generation Perhaps, but then we get into the murky issue into how much energy it takes to produce a calorie in food production. According to this source it's in excess of a 10:1 ratio: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/10-calories-in-1-calorie-out-the-energy-we-spend-on-food/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbfrese Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 I suggest that there is already a ready-made indicator of efficiency, money. Instead of boiling things down to calories, boil it down to the cost of going a certain distance. Granted there are distortions, almost all created by government interference, that hides the true cost of things. Solar and ethanol subsidies being the two most obvious. But by calculating cost, you get much closer to the relative efficiency of various systems. The cost of a human's diet can actually be fairly inexpensive. We don't need to eat Kobe beef fillets, for example, as such luxuries are not absolutely needed and should be left out of the calculations. Any costs should bring in the cost of the device used, averaged over the useful life of the system, whether it is an EU, car, bike, shoes, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwin_rm Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Running and cycling uses electric power as well btw. The water heater for the after run shower, and the washing machine / drying of the sweaty clothes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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