by Ken Torino
This is the third in a series of article about human energy.
The original idea for the K-Tor Company was the Power Box. If you are going to do any amount of cranking you will want to pedal. The main difference between the hand crank and the pedal generator is that you can pedal easily for long periods of time, even at higher levels of power. With the Power Box, we had a number of aims. The pedal generators in existence were very large heavy and expensive and this put them out of the reach of most people. We wanted a pedal generator that was small, light and inexpensive so that it could be used by a wide range of people in a broad array of applications. We decided on a universal power outlet as this would be the most universal interface and could be used anywhere in the world. The common use of switching chargers made using DC a possibility and the more efficient conversion of DC to DC.
This meant any where in the world people could plug in their cell phones, tablets and many other portable and rechargeable devices and charge them up with nothing more than the charger that came with their device. No converter necessary.
Using the charger that came with their device also meant it was the safest way to charge their devices batteries. They charge at the same rate as plugging in a wall outlet controlled by the wall charger
Last, with a 12-volt battery charger as provided on our website a 12-volt battery could be used and devices with higher power needs could also be used.
The power box weighs in at 4 lbs and 11 oz. In 2020 we hope to migrate to the cranks that come with the Power Box 50 and take 8 oz. off of the power box weight. The size is also impressive, folded, 13×6.5×4 inches, about the size of a shoebox.
At this writing about 7,500 power boxes have been sold and the reception has been very positive. The number one request has been to build a bigger, higher power version. We did this, announced, and made it generally available Sept. 2018 as the Power Box 50. In the next article we will cover the Power Box 50 and then go on to discuss the ways the two Power Boxes can be used to support higher power and a wide variety of applications like charging laptops, and running motors such as furnace fan motors, well motors and sump pumps and other electric motors, such as bicycle, fans and marine trolling motors.