I highly doubt you can tell if a 100W bulb is lit 100%. The human eye is not
that sensitive to relative lighting.

Talk about using actual power measurements...LOL

--------------
"Existential Angst" wrote in message
...

I wouldn't be too impressed, just yet.....

480 W for a continuous hour is proly some laboratory confabulation, from
devices that are not measuring watts, but calculating/inferring watts.
A lot of these bicycle watt meters are "watt calculators" from piezo sumpn
strain gauges/load cells, not from true generated electrical power. Dollars
to donuts, if you tested these guys on a real generator, you'd get far more
modest results.

Here's why:

If you calc backwards from a 480 watt mechanical output, you wind up with a
VO2 of 100.
Keep in mind that the elite of the elite possess VO2 *MAXes* of about 95,
and VO2max is a semi-instantaneous value, NOT a sustained value.
I'll have to check, but I think VO2max need only be sustained for a fraction
of a minute to qualify as VO2 max.

Sustained (aerobic) VO2s are usually *maybe* 80% of VO2max values. And that
last 20% is almost exponential in its perceived exertion, ie, quite
unsustainable.
Iow, a marathon runner may win a race at 80% of his VO2max (2+hours), but if
he "miscalculates", and runs at 90%, he may crap out after 1/2 hour -- or
sooner.

Marathon runners are toodling along at 18-20 cals/min, while your above
cyclist is calc'ing out at 34 cals/min -- which is unheard of, on a
sustained basis -- at least for 150 lb. guys. 300# -- mebbe.....

I'll post the calcs iffin inyone is innerested, basically just conversions.

Was *your* 70 W really 70 watts? Hard to say.
I can tell you that I can run for a solid hour (if you pay me), albeit not
at any earth-shaking pace, but at 180# and with hills, that is some
effort/expenditure.

The point being, I couldn't keep a 100 W lite bulb lit up for more than 3
minutes, a few days ago, on my cycle-generator.
Now, I think I'm getting better quickly, as I haven't cycled in literally 40
years, but still, even with substantial improvement, 1/2 hour at that output
is proly beyond my wherewithall -- both physical AND psychological!

100 W calcs out to a moderate but still substantial 10 cal/min, but in
reality is certainly more, depending on the efficiency of a PM DC motor.

Inyway, just some perspective on some of these hyooge wattage claims.
A little more perspective:
Some cyclists claim 2000 W peak outputs, which I might believe, over a
second or two.
Powerlifters have been measured at near-10,000 W instantaneous efforts, no
doubt over fractions of a second, possibly milliseconds. Staggering, when
you think about it.

But, what you can do for second is a *whole* lot different than what can be
done for 10 secs, 1 min, 5 min, 10 min, 1 hour.

And then, of course, you have the HSN/QVC pod peeple, effervescing: Oh,
Oh, OH, I just burntid 500 cals in 1/2 hour, and dint even knowed it!!!!!
Not hardly, sweetheart..... If you burntid 500 cals in 1/2 hour, you
likely woudn't be goin to work the next day.....
--
EA






--Winston -- Now walking around, turning off room lights.