Pedaling For Power

Like most teenagers, 12-year old Daniel and 15 year-old Isobel were a little careless about their electricity use. They often forgot to switch off the lights, unplug their laptops and, left the central heating on, as they dashed out to school, each morning. However, that was all before the family took part in an unusual experiment conducted by British television station BBC One, for its science show 'Big Bang Theory'.

Dubbed 'The Human Power Station', it entailed the family to move for just 24 hours, into a house that was not powered by the national grid, but by 80 cyclists pedaling furiously on bikes modified to convert energy into electricity. And these were not casual 'weekend warriors' either - but members of Britain's most elite bicycling teams.

While the Collins family knew they were part of some kind of experiment - they had no idea what it was. All they knew was, they were supposed to behave as normally as possible - And they did, not realizing even for one moment that it was human pedaled power that was trying to cope with their casual waste of electricity.

When Shelley turned on her hairdryer, 18 cyclists pedaled furiously to keep it going. The simple act of toasting a slice of bread took the efforts of 9 cyclists, while boiling water took 30 cyclists, and a nice long hot shower? That took the efforts of 70 furiously pedaling human power stations!

While tired, the cyclists continued to power the family's needs without giving them any reason to suspect anything. . . . . . that was until they settled down to their Sunday afternoon routine.

Shelly turned on the vacuum cleaner, the kids cozied up with their game consoles and dad, switched on the oven in preparation for a big Sunday meal! Added to this power load, was of course the smattering of unnecessary lights that remained on, all over the house.

Pedal as they did the 80 cyclists could not keep up with the demands of the four-person family, causing the house to plunge into darkness. That's when the family realized what the 'experiment' was about.

The televised event was the idea of two energy experts to demonstrate how much energy most of us waste. While the Collins family sure learned their lesson, they are hoping that the rest of the world will too - So the next time you are taking an extra long shower think about those poor pedaling cyclists - It may help you curb your bad habits a little, and help conserve our precious resources.

sources: dailymail.co.uk,BBC.co.uk