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crank charging a phone, calculation

Blogs > mantequilla
Post a Reply
mantequilla
Profile Blog Joined June 2012
Turkey781 Posts
November 13 2016 17:13 GMT
#1
https://tr.aliexpress.com/item/Portable-Hand-Crank-Wind-Up-USB-Cell-Phone-Emergency-Charger-Dynamo-Hand-Crank-USB-Charger-For/32727699889.html?isOrigTitle=true

I have a led flashlight with a crank charger. Since leds use little energy it works quite well and charges pretty well with a crank. So I made some dirty calculations for the product above:

say we have a 2000 mAh battery. At 5v it is 2 x 5 = 10 watt/hour.

internet says 1 watt is 0.86 kcal/h, so 10 w/h is 8.6 kcal.

since average calories for adult male is like 2000-2500 per day, 8.6 kcal is roughly 3-4 days worth of calories. It means I have to burn my 3-4 days worth of energy in 1 hour to crank charge a phone.


are my calculations sensible?

**
Age of Mythology forever!
Cauld
Profile Joined February 2010
United States350 Posts
November 13 2016 17:18 GMT
#2
no, the calories you eat are kcals already.
mantequilla
Profile Blog Joined June 2012
Turkey781 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-11-13 17:29:35
November 13 2016 17:25 GMT
#3
so its 2500 kcal = 2 500 000 cal a day?

so it means calculation is off by 1000 multiple, so instead of 4 days, 1/250 of my daily calories is enough to charge a phone
Age of Mythology forever!
yB.TeH
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Germany418 Posts
November 13 2016 18:05 GMT
#4
from your link:
Maximum output current: 500 mA
2000mAh / 500mA = 4h
which means you have to keep cranking it for 4 hours to completely charge you phone
but you'll never discharge it completely so 3 hours should be enough
Cyro
Profile Blog Joined June 2011
United Kingdom20326 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-11-13 19:58:20
November 13 2016 19:57 GMT
#5
On November 14 2016 02:25 mantequilla wrote:
so its 2500 kcal = 2 500 000 cal a day?

so it means calculation is off by 1000 multiple, so instead of 4 days, 1/250 of my daily calories is enough to charge a phone


yeah

Burning >1KG of fat from charging a phone would be pretty insane :D
"oh my god my overclock... I got a single WHEA error on the 23rd hour, 9 minutes" -Belial88
loginn
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
France815 Posts
November 14 2016 00:56 GMT
#6
I was expecting a funny picture of AxCrank charging a phone. ^^
Stephano, Taking skill to the bank since IPL3. Also Lucifron and FBH
LtCalley
Profile Joined March 2011
United States244 Posts
November 14 2016 04:21 GMT
#7
On November 14 2016 09:56 loginn wrote:
I was expecting a funny picture of AxCrank charging a phone. ^^


same. lol
"No matter how good you are at something, there's always about a million people better than you" - Homer Simpson
Chairman Ray
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
United States11903 Posts
November 14 2016 05:25 GMT
#8
On November 14 2016 09:56 loginn wrote:
I was expecting a funny picture of AxCrank charging a phone. ^^


Came here for this as well, disappointed
Probe1
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States17920 Posts
November 14 2016 06:00 GMT
#9
That is an amazing miscalculation.
우정호 KT_VIOLET 1988 - 2012 While we are postponing, life speeds by
Acrofales
Profile Joined August 2010
Spain18239 Posts
November 14 2016 15:36 GMT
#10
On November 14 2016 02:25 mantequilla wrote:
so its 2500 kcal = 2 500 000 cal a day?

so it means calculation is off by 1000 multiple, so instead of 4 days, 1/250 of my daily calories is enough to charge a phone

Well... yes, except that between 60 and 75% of your daily calories are spent on merely keeping you alive and in rest. So the useable calories are only 25-40% of that.

Moreover, the efficiency is going to be lost at a further two points:

1. Converting chemical energy into kinetic energy (to turn the crank... note that I am already completely bypassing all inefficiencies of the metabolic process in your body)
2. Converting kinetic energy into electric energy (in your crank charger).

The latter is quite efficient, so lets say only 10% is lost to heat.

Unfortunately, the former is only 25% efficient according to http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/11/mpg-of-a-human/

So that means, the total calories available for spending on charging your phone are actually only:

2500kcal * .25 *.9 = 562,5kcal

In other words, you will spend ~1/65 part of your daily calories. Still not bad, but not as good as 1/250 either (still better than 4 days worth

However, returning to the first point, you also only have 25-40% of your daily intake available for freely spending, which is (assuming your resting state is highly efficient=

2500 * .4 = 1000 kcal, or, in kinetic energy, 250 kcal.

Converting that kinetic energy into electric energy with your hand crank:

250 * .9 = 225 kcal.

So, charging your mobile phone takes ~1/26th of the energy available to you (assuming you eat 2500 kcal worth of food) for spending on moving about.

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