What do Pedicabs, Video Games, Star Wars, and the bad power situation in Nigeria have in common?
Seems like a pretty random mix of stuff to me. However, read for a little bit and I'll explain my logic and maybe you can help me answer the question I asked in the title.
Unreliable Power in Nigeria.
Now in my community (#Be Frugal) I asked about electricity. The general response I got was that it was unreliable in Nigeria. I wrote about a tiny solar system yesterday but it got me thinking about something I made for my son a few years ago.
I made a bicycle power generator.
You see my son loved playing video games and hated getting exercise. I tried to limit screen time and encourage exercise but my son hated getting out of the house to get exercise. Being resourceful and a little sneaky I gave him a deal.
He could play on his video games as much as he wanted. As long as he powered the video games by himself.
Now the unit itself has long ago been dismantled but it looked very similar to this:
With a device like that it is possible to create about 125W of power continuously for an entire 8hr day. Sure you can make even more power (250+ watts) but you will tire yourself out and be unable to continue.
My son got exercise AND he got to play as much as he wanted. We both won.
Pedicabs
Now when I'm in the Philippines it is not that uncommon for people to make money in pedicabs. They are a bicycle connected to a sidecar and are often used for short distance trips within a Bario (small neighborhood). The image above would be a high class one but most would be similar to a keke napep
Regardless some people make a living off the small amount of money given them as they drive people short distances around town. The pedicab driver can know that he makes money by providing necessary transportation for people.
Making money from charging cellphone
With the poor power situation I was reading a report from a fellow Hive user that some people are charging 50 Naira to charge a cellphone. That is actually a fairly large amount of money compared to the small amount of electricity that is required to charge a cellphone!
In perspective: A new cellphone with a large battery will usually advertise 5000mah battery. That means 5Ah and at a 5V battery that means 25 Watts of power to be held in the battery. Many older phones only held a small fraction of that power.
Now. If you are paying the ACTUAL rate for electricity from the power company 25W of power should cost 1.25 Naira (yes I've looked at the power bills posted in the community and done the math). Paying 50 Naira to charge a phone is likely paying 40x as much as you should.
Then again, you can easily make 50 Naira on a single Hive post made with your phone.
The end note is that people ARE paying extra to be able to charge their phone anytime. There is an opportunity there.
Where did I get Star Wars from?
Well, in the Star wars Universe they have robots than can do anything that a human can do. Just look at this guy:
However they still use human labor. Why? Humans are cheaper. They repair themselves. They manufacture themselves. Just give them food, a place to live, and a bit of money and they get the job done. Robots break down, are expensive and time consuming to repair so for some tasks its cheaper just to hire a person.
So what if I hired a person to make my electricity?
Yes of course I could just get a generator like this one:
and if I give it two hours and 3 liters of gasoline it will give me about 1.3kWh of electricity. In Canada that 3 liters of gasoline will cost about 3500 Naira, in Nigeria I think about 2500 Naira.
Then again it needs maintenance, may breakdown, makes more pollution and uses fuel even if it isn't powering anything at the moment.
But...
What if a pedicab driver decided to power a bicycle generator instead? Or what if I hired a person to just ride a bicycle generator at my home?
Economics of being a human power generator.
I'll make a few assumptions here. I'm going to assume Pedicab drivers don't make a lot of money. I'll assume that someone is willing to work for minimum wage. I'll assume that people are actually willing to power up their cellphones for 50 Naira. Any one of those assumptions could be totally incorrect.
But with those assumptions in mind.
- An cellphone requires 25W (max) to charge with many being less than that.
- A person can make 125W of electrical energy with little effort for an extended period of time.
- Using quick charge a cellphone can be charged in under an hour.
Theoretically a person using a pedal power generator could charge 5 phones in one hour. Could also work 8 hours in a day.
5 phones * 50 Naira/phone * 1hr/charge * 8hrs/day = 2000 Naira/day
2000 Naira/day * 5days/week * 4 weeks/month = 40,000 Naira/month.
Considering that minimum wage is 30,000 Naira monthly it is theoretically possible that a person could employ himself by simply pedalling a bicycle all day.
Which leads me to my topic question.
If someone were to offer to hire someone to pedal a bicycle generator daily would it be a Good job, Bad job, of exploiting the person.
If I was to spend 2000 to 3000 Naira per day on fuel perhaps I could just give that money to someone to pedal the generator and feed them.
Assume that they were paid minimum wage. Assume that they were given regular breaks. Also assume that they were given meals to replace the calories they burn bicycling. It would probably be cheaper than paying the fuel for the generator.
On paper the employer would be getting access to a small steady supply of electricity. No surprise outages. No surprise bills. No deal cellphone and No lights that don't work.
The employee would only be making minimum wage but... They would be getting regular exercise. They would be getting a food allowance. They would be providing a useful service. There would be no ambiguity in what their job was and could theoretically watch video's, play games, or listen to music all day at work while still getting regular meals.
Doesn't sound so bad when writing it down.
However, you are treating the person with no more regard than a power generator. The person is seen as a less expensive alternative to a machine. There is no possibility for career advancement. There is no sense of fulfilment. No human interaction.
In that sense it could be a truly horrible job.
What do you think?