Consider yourself green and crafty? Build one of these pedal powered machines to generate electricity - or even do your laundry!

1. Free plans for building your own bicycle generator : Videos and plans to make your own pedal power bicycle generator station. Good for powering your television, radio, cell phone, blender, or laptop, or for an emergency backup generator! Includes detailed instructions and photos of assembly process.

2. Pedal Power Bicycle Generator for iPod, Cell Phone, Portable TV or DVD player: This bike generator design is good for running low power devices, and can be built with off-the-shelf parts from local stores or from Amazon.com. Any one who can use a drill, socket wrench, hack saw, wire cutters, and crimpers can do this project.

3. A quick, ugly pedal generator made from an old 3-speed bicycle: "Although most folks who live off the power grid probably get plenty of exercise doing other things, this could provide significant power if used daily. We built this in about 1 hour, if a person actually had a need, it would be well worth taking a little more time, and making certain improvements to the design. The two things are necessary to build one, a bike, and a low rpm generator/alternator. We used an old 3 speed, although the gears on a 10 speed might be more appropriate."

4. Bicycle Powered Generator: "I think the most practical application of the bicycle powered generator would be battery charging. This application presents a constant load to the rider which allows them to select a single gear ratio which lets them pedal at their optimal cadence. Another practical application is running small appliances and tools which use universal series wound motors or permanent magnet DC motors."

5. Build your own pedal generator: "Every morning, I pedal to generate electricity. The Pedal Generator I ride charges batteries, that run an inverter, that produces 110v AC, that powers LED lights, the monitor on my computer, my cell phones, and charges my Roomba as well as many other small battery-powered things. It is the most inspiring workout you can imagine."

6. The Bicycle Generator: "A bicycle generator, while fairly inefficient and intensive, gives us a physical connection with the energy we use, and keeps our limbs warm. It is also a satisfyingly visible process, with whizzing wheels, and when not in use doubles as transport. Talking to people, and researching online, gave us a good idea of what we needed. Half the parts were gathered before we came to the woods, and the rest found locally."

7. DIY Power Station (and laundry module): "Routine generation of electricity through your own physical effort will reflexively result in 'pedaling hours' as your mental metric for evaluating electricity usage, and that will translate into greater mindfulness, hence reduction in electricity use. Peace of mind results from knowing that in a power outage, you will still have the ability to power small household electronic devices like a laptop computer, a cell phone charger, a radio, a TV, etc. that will lessen the impact of such an outage."