LED Floodlight
(13)
LED Street Lamp
(12)
Solar Lawn Light
(24)
LED Flashlight
(34)
Camping Lamp
(17)
LED Spotlight
(6)
Traffic Baton
(0)
LED Ceiling Lamp
(26)
LED Lamp Cup
(26)
Work Light
(55)
Solar panel
(9)
Though Skippy the Hamster powers this night light by running on this excercise wheel, the same concepts and low-rpm alternator design could be applied to a school science project using different energy sources! A small wind or hydro turbine could easily power this alternator.
The Otherpower.com staff thought of building a hamster-powered nightlight a couple years ago at a rather, uh, soused company Christmas party. Then recently Analise, an 8th grader from Albuquerque, NM, contacted DanF through the AllExperts.com Science For Kids forum, asking 'Can a rodent generate enough electricity to power a nightlight by running on it's wheel?' That was enough inspiration for us to start the project, and we soon added Skippy the Hamster to the Otherpower.com payroll. He's a Syrian Hamster, and we chose that breed since they are nocturnal and like to run on the exercise wheel. Analise will be using a mouse named Ghost for her science fair project.
We bet that Analise will be working on some of these challenges for her project, and keeping careful records. We just helped her with the alternator design -- I don't think they teach it in school these days. And we hope others will try this experiment, and refine it for their own needs too! As for us -- the silliness level here at work has reached an all time high--even more so by finding out that the project actually works! Skippy is happily employed by Forcefield and keeps DanF from stumbling during those late night light trips to the bathroom. We'll keep feeding him hamster chow (Skippy, that is) and see how many watt hours he makes yearly!
