12 ms·
Indian School Girl Creates Washing Machine That Runs Without Electricity
- Brajeshwar 13y agoNice. This will also work well in places that has frequent power cuts. It is kinda funny when I went back to my home-town. Most household have Washing Machines lying around, unused because they don't have the power required to complete a wash cycle.
- maqr 13y agoWhere are you from? I didn't even know that was a problem that people could have.
- 1stop 13y agoDid you know there are places where people don't have regular supply of water or food as well!? I know, the world is an crazy place. Edit: For less snark see[0] - Large parts of India, middle east and Asia experience this. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_blackout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_blackout
- Uchikoma 13y agoI guess he assumed that there was power, or no power, but there was no state of "not enough power", just like me.
- pavs 13y agohe said "don't have the power required to complete a wash cycle", meaning the power the stay continuously long enough to finish washing.
- Uchikoma 13y agoI understood it as during the washing cycle power demands fluctuate, peak, and there is not enough power for that. Like memory, your process starts, has a memory peak after 15min and you get an out of memory error. Does not run through.
- madhuprasanna 13y agoVery common in India. Only sure things that go inside the washing machine are dirty clothes and detergent. No guarantees about water and power. This is the main reason I have gone for top loading machine(Samsung fully automatic?? top loading model), so I can catch water in a bucket and pour and keep it running :p. My washing machine is intelligent enough to handle the power cuts by itself though. I am from Bangalore by the way and staying in an apartment with diesel generator, but it is not in auto stand by. It has to be manually switched on and the power is supplied only to lower wattage power outlets. It is more irritating, when adsl modem/wifi router goes off and comes up again with diesel backup. All devices lose IP address and starts DHCP again. Soon going to buy UPS for modem/wifi router. There are much more things, like HP printers jamming, external HDD going down, getting stuck inside elevator, induction cook tops stop working etc.,
- kamaal 13y agoNever faced problems with wifi, basically because I have a UPS backup. I have a time based work around for washing clothes and water heater though, start the process of washing machine at around 3-5 AM in the morning and turn on the water heater. By the time the power is gone, your major chores are done. Other workaround include, switching to CFL instead of tube lights(Save power and net monthly bill, which can be adjusted for UPS expenses), using LPG instead of induction cooker etc. LED lights are going to be a big thing in India. Plus I can't wait intelligent Solar energy hacks at least for lighting needs. We need innovation there.
- thewarrior 13y agoUPS will last 3 - 4 hours at best ?
- kamaal 13y agoYou have to use heavy power rationing if you are on UPS. Devices on heating line are automatically out- Water heaters, refrigerator, microwave ovens etc. The lights run on CFL's whose power consumption is really low. I very rarely use TV during power cuts, unless I'm sure the power is sure to return in 2-3 hours. The rest wifi modem, laptop etc are all lower power consumption devices.
- lostlogin 13y agoOur washing machine died. I thought it odd, grabbed a nearby circular saw, tried it, and it went. So it was the washing machine, not the power point. So we bought a new washing machine. As the old one left in the truck, we ran a wash. As soon as it reached the spin cycle it stopped. The power point couldn't take the higher draw, the departed washing machine was fine. Annoying.
- aaronem 13y agoWhat kind of overcurrent protection did the circuit have? A fuse would've blown and needed replacing before the power point could be used again; a circuit breaker would've tripped and had to be reset. Are polyfuses used in that role? Or do they make self-resetting circuit breakers for house current?
- lostlogin 13y agoWe had the fusebox replaced soon after this, as it was 1950s vintage. I got a minor shock when using a power tool and went inside to see why the fuse hadn't blown. Someone had replaced the fuse wire with paper clips. However this also doesn't explain what the fault was and I'm pretty sure the electrician replaced the powerpoint in the end. The new fuse box had residual current devices, which had to be reset manually if tripped.
- kamaal 13y agoForget home town, there are frequent power cuts in Bangalore itself. Most of the time 12-16 hours during weekends. I used to get frustrated, as weekends used to be my time when I wash clothes. Now I have a clever work around, I just put everything in the washing machine in the night at dinner. Then I just wake for a moment at around 3 AM and turn on the washing machine and geyser, by the time I'm awake in the morning the washing machine is done with washing and water is ready hot. I put the clothes for drying and take a bath. By then the power is gone. But then after the major chores are done. Who cares?
- gohrt 13y agoHave people tried using capacitors or batteries to accumulate electricity when the power lines are working? Is it too expensive/dangerous to help cover the outages?
- dredmorbius 13y agoOn an energy storage density basis, liquid fuels and a generator beat batteries by a long shot. So if you want a dependable electrical system, you'll have a generator. You might still include batteries and some form of power regulation to get you through spikes and/or brownouts, but that's just a few miliseconds to minutes, not hours. A generator and large diesel tank can run you for days.
- rbobby 13y ago> geyser Is that a local term for hot water heater?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- ChuckMcM 13y agoNice, my wife got a HandyWash [1] for camping and it works pretty well. With the right sort of assists manual washing is pretty straight forward. [1] http://www.hometone.com/pressure-handwasher-a-handy-washing-machine.html http://www.hometone.com/pressure-handwasher-a-handy-washing-...
- Nogwater 13y agoWhen camping, we used to use a 5 gal. plastic bucket with a hole cut in the lid and a plunger. It actually worked really well if you have 20 minutes to sit around manually washing clothes.
- danielharan 13y agoNeat. How long does it take to do a wash with that?
- ChuckMcM 13y agoSince we generally have nylon clothes while camping not long at all. I don't think I've tried to wash denim in it. Basically it takes longer to dry generally than it does to wash it. (and nylon dries pretty quickly)
- Hilyin 13y agoLooks awkward as hell, why not just connect a bike connected by bike chain to the washer so your legs aren't all spread wide trying to pedal. http://goo.gl/K6W6gS http://goo.gl/K6W6gS
- netchaos 13y agoThere you go, the same girl. http://azstarnet.com/news/world/perpetual-paintbrush-bike-like-washing-machine-among-finds/article_ae28ec90-2bb1-5680-ab80-55571f450908.html http://azstarnet.com/news/world/perpetual-paintbrush-bike-li...
- munimkazia 13y agoIf it was an open source programming project, this would be my first pull request! But it does mean you have to keep a bike connected to it, which is extra equipment which costs more and takes more space.
- coltr 13y agoGood point.
- cubancigar11 13y agoWe had a project in our mechanical class to create 'stuff' using lathe machine and what not. All 35 in our class were divided into groups of 3 and were supposed to come up with 'novel' ideas. 5 groups (including mine) came up with washing machine :)
- userbinator 13y agoYou see odd but surprisingly practical inventions like these in China as well - as they say, "necessity is the mother of invention".
- known 13y ago"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw
- ragsagar 13y agoCouple of years before i saw a school kid with a grinder that works by pedalling in Kerala state level science exhibition. It was very similar to this. These sort of machines are common among these competitions.
- kokey 13y agoI have conflicted feelings about this. On the one hand it's nice to see the creativity and spirit, on the other hand it's sad to have to invent solutions for problems we should have stopped having a century ago, where the solution does not free up time for other things. http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_machine.html http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_and_the_magic_washing_...
- comex 13y agoArguably, having the side effect of providing exercise counts as freeing up time for other things.
- deckiedan 13y agoYes, and while cycling, you can actually do some other things. Reading, watching TV, etc. Although, looking at first world countries, and how society is working, having solutions which force exercise on us would probably be extremely beneficial.
- almosnow 13y agoYou could be coding in Java...
- chris_mahan 13y agoThen I wouldn't get the laundry done.
- igravious 13y agoWouldn't you need to find a TV that doesn't run on electricity first?
- TeMPOraL 13y agoWell, electricity is made out of rotating things if you strap a magnet to them somewhere ;).
- chenster 13y agoHey, loooky here, an electricity-free, zero-emission, exercise, "green" boat made from bicycle! http://cubeme.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/diy_amphibious_bicycle_made_recycled_water_gallons_1.jpg http://cubeme.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/diy_amphib...
- gsk 13y agoThis is great. Years ago I used to help out at Honey Bee Network http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/ http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/ and saw hundreds and hundreds of innovative solutions by people from all over India. If you can navigate the rather clunky interface at the website, there's a lot of great solutions for problems that millions of people in low-income population face. Here are some: Motorcycle cultivator http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/hb_inno_detail.php?ID=DTP0010000004191&lang_name=en&page=1&search_case=cycle http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/hb_inno_detail.php?ID=DTP0010000... Bamboo bicycle http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/hb_inno_detail.php?ID=KNW0020000000054&lang_name=en&page=3&search_case=cycle http://www.sristi.org/hbnew/hb_inno_detail.php?ID=KNW0020000...
- jqm 13y agoThese things really work (I used one in an apartment). http://breathingwasher.com/ http://breathingwasher.com/ And, they cost a lost less than that bicycle contraption. Takes about 5 minutes to wash a few pairs of pants and some shirts. Gets them amazingly clean.
- jff 13y agoEverything old is new again: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Washing_machine.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Washing_m...
- spullara 13y agoOne could argue that it was a pretty severe oversight in the original design that you had to use your arms instead of your legs to turn that one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v1rSA4FqlM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v1rSA4FqlM
- taktiktook 13y agoNot quite. Back in those days it was considered unladylike to use your legs to operate a machine. First sewing machines used hand operated wheel to run, which were very hard to use. It was only later people started to use the foot operated ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jonescs.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jonescs.jpg
- marquis 13y agoLegs in themselves were considered risqué. These sewing machines would also have been covered with large skirts, much like the Victorian dinner table.
- miaowmix 13y agoWell said, I agree completely!
- aditsgupta 13y agoNecessity is the mother of all inventions! I'm from India and I know how much impact this might have on the rural community here.
- kamaal 13y agoThough this must be appreciated, but this isn't new. Even in India. This thing has be done many times and failed to gather much support, basically at some point you begin get frustrated to be putting so much mechanical effort while an automated solution exists and can't be put to use because of power shortage. Most people don't have hours to be cycling to wash clothes, because if they wanted to- They might as well wash them manually with their hands(Note, this is super common in India). Its a bit like programmers doing manual work, what could be automated. And it looks cheap and is frustrating. Either way, India is in desperate need for energy related hacks. Solar energy offers a lot of hope. Even things like LED lights, better battery technology, bicycle pedal assists et al can do great help in India markets.
- thewarrior 13y agoFor an example of real original thinking from India see this http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-30/news/46828430_1_power-supply-power-cuts-dc-power http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-01-30/news... I tried posting it here but didnt get too many upvotes.
- kamaal 13y agoGreat Idea, but the initial capital expenditure will be very high and at some time prohibitive enough. I think the government can help in waiving off taxes for sale of LED lights(This can cause great savings in power consumption), pedal assist bicycles and for things alike. Either way I don't think big changes will happen until we see great deal of innovation in the energy sector.
- virtualsue 13y agoMy daughter has a small pedal powered washing machine that she uses in her house in Leicester (UK). I liked the article and the girl's mechanical ingenuity but the idea itself is very old!
- dotemacs 13y agoAnybody else notice that the water from the washing machine is being discharged, untreated, into the stream near by?
- kbutler 13y agoI expect that where only 14% of the rural population of India has access to a latrine (http://water.org/country/india/ http://water.org/country/india/), washing machine effluent is not a significant concern.
- curiouscats 13y agoAnd how do you think it was without the machine? Often it is doing the cleaning in the stream, beating the cloths on rocks.
- enscr 13y agoInstead of running washing machines on electricity and then running on electric powered machines in gym, how about manually cycling a washing machine like this. You hit 2 birds with one stone. Granted it's not practical in every household, but it's not a bad alternative for some.
- agumonkey 13y agoWe need generic magnetic resistance (instead of weighted) machines charging batteries.
- enscr 13y agoI've wondered, but too lazy to calculate that how much electricity could be generated by machines in gym. Probably not a lot, but the whole idea of a green gym could encourage people to work out more. Edit : Google search shows some in practice : http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2032281,00.html http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2032281...
- VLM 13y agoIt works for greenwashing as a marketing technique as you suspect, but the energy cost of lighting alone exceeds the energy you can produce by leg power, to say nothing of HVAC for the facility and water heater for the showers. This is why we burn coal and uranium instead of forced prison labor to generate electricity on exercise bikes. I'm glad of that.
- sdfjkl 13y agoThe first thing this made me think of was the countless old/broken washing machines ending up on the dump, with perfectly intact, shiny stainless steel drums that could've been used in this.
- agumonkey 13y agoNext : use a set of rocking chairs connected to a flywheel distributing kinetic energy to whatever appliance needs it, bring your family and enjoy.
- mrmondo 13y agoI'm unsure as to why it's important to state that she is Indian in the title?
- rlongstaff 13y agoThe GiraDora manually powered washing machine was announced a couple of years ago - I don't know what happened to it, e.g. did it never get funding? http://inhabitat.com/human-powered-giradora-washer-needs-no-electricity-and-costs-only-40/ http://inhabitat.com/human-powered-giradora-washer-needs-no-...
- eklavya 13y agoI think it can be improved so that you don't have to put the whole machine between your legs by using more of the cycle (chained pedal rotation). Good to see people trying to make lives better for themselves and their community.
- enscr 13y agoCool but lots of similar stuff around https://www.google.com/search?q=bicycle+washing+machine&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X https://www.google.com/search?q=bicycle+washing+machine&sour...
- disputin 13y agoNot sure about invented. I guess it could be invented on a local scale, but I saw something similar in South Africa in the early 90's.
- smoyer 13y agoHere's another example of a bicycle powered washing machine - in this case, using the tub and impeller from one commercial machine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYmK9Rsh4Pg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYmK9Rsh4Pg
- Eye_of_Mordor 13y agoDoes she plan on inventing one for ironing?
- test1235 13y agoYeah - you throw an iron and your clothes into a drum which you can spin by pedalling. The idea is only a prototype, however, and might need some fine-tuning.
- marquis 13y agoIt's not so much that this exists: it's that she built something. Kudos to that. Of course this idea isn't new. I use one of these when camping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYq34Bxkp5w&t=3m55s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYq34Bxkp5w&t=3m55s
- masukomi 13y agoyou bring that massive thing with you when camping?! ... I think we have different definitions of "camping".
- marquis 13y agoYou've never been camping with 30 members of your family before huh.
- joyeuse6701 13y agoreally shouldn't be called camping so much as pioneering, or oregon trailing ;)
- dalacv 13y agodidnt they have this on gilligan's island like 50 years ago?
- jk 13y agoPlease note that this is something Remya created around 2003; more than 10 years ago. I am not sure how it was posted in 2013.
- seshakiran 13y agook now. a satirical comment. :) very good. now take this and create a company that improves your health while washing your clothes. Affluent people will buy. In my earlier days, we used to use something called as "hands" to wash clothes.