I was really bored so i thought I'd calculate how many hamsters it would take to power a house and how much it would cost.
The average hamster weighs about 4oz, runs at an average speed of about 1.2mph and runs about 8 miles each night. If he were to run in an 8" diameter wheel he would produce about 1oz-inch of torque (4oz at 4" radius) at 50.4202860rpm (8" X pi = 25.1327412". 63360"[one mile] divided by 25.1327412"= 2521.0143014 rotations per mile. 2521.0143014 X 1.2 = 3025.2171617 rotations per hour divide by 60 = 50.4202860 rpm).1oz-in. = 0.0052083lb-ft X 50rpm divided by 5252 = 0.0000496 HP = 0.0369867136 watts.
So, the average hamster generates 0.0102741watt (0.0369867136 X 6.6666667 [8hrs/1.2mph] divided by 24). The average household uses about 2900Watts which means it would take 282263.1666034 hamsters to power the average household.
Each day the average hamster drinks about 25cc of water and eats 12 grams of food. A 2lb bag of hamster food costs about $5 and a gallon of tap water is about $0.001 so it would cost about $0.0055118 a day per hamster which would be $536.48 per kilowatt hour. (1000 divided by 0.0102741 = 97332.126415 X 0.0055118 = 536.4752144)-- Livingfishguy, Aug 25 2007 See also Hamster_20based_20p...conversion_20tablesDifferent results (perhaps because I didn't use so many decimal places) [Ling, Aug 26 2007] Is this not a *hamster gym*?-- xandram, Aug 25 2007 Could you kindly recalculate this for the following animals: weasels, dormice, guinea pigs, centipedes, dachshunds... Let me know when you have the results. Graphs would also be helpful. ps Welcome to the world of halfbaked ideas.-- xenzag, Aug 25 2007 Sounds much cheaper than my wintertime gas bill.-- RayfordSteele, Aug 25 2007 your calculations neglect heating, litter and vets bills.
oh yes, and wear and tear/replacement of hamster wheels.
what if you don't have an *average* hamster, supposin' you have a really really lazy buggar?-- po, Aug 25 2007 So what you're saying is that 2lb of hamsters produces about 0.3Watts.
How much power would be produced if you threw this bag of hamsters on the fire?-- zen_tom, Aug 25 2007 I'm sorry but I have to ask ...
what about Pussy Power?-- DenholmRicshaw, Aug 25 2007 How much thermal energy would so many hamsters generate? Could this be used to directly heat a house? Could you attach a stirling engine to the room they were in?-- marklar, Aug 26 2007 Wow, you really were bored weren't you!-- wagster, Aug 26 2007 Mmmmmm, Picnic Hampsters.-- The Kat, Aug 26 2007 random, halfbakery