The project began with a simple question: How much electricity do we use for our everyday tasks? While this can be quantified in watts, joules or kilowatt hours, these figures can be abstract. What does 100 watts actually mean?
The Human Powered Toaster project aims to make this concept more relatable by translating electric power into familiar physical work. Can human strength alone power a toaster? Given that a conventional toaster requires about 1000 watts, a custom toaster using only 10% of that energy was created. This improved toaster is powered by a stepper motor functioning as a dynamo.
To generate the necessary energy, a heavy weight was connected to the dynamo with a rope and spindle, converting the falling weight’s potential energy into electrical energy.
In this installation, human energy is directly converted to electricity using a hand crank connected to the dynamo.
Photo: Florian Sapp
Photo: Florian Sapp
Bio
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Photo: Florian SappFlorian Sapp
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Florian Sapp is a Viennese designer who studies Design Investigations at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Most of his projects focus around current topics like climate change or the influence of AI on society.
Credits
Human Powered Toaster is a project by Florian Sapp, created as part of his studies at Design Investigations, at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Special thanks to Julian Maisriml and Alan Schiegl for their assistance with filming. Presented in the context of the European Digital Deal project. European Digital Deal is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport.
