I was just searching for items to augment my emergency supplies, funning across several items that featured hand crank mechanisms to recharge batteries. To me, those are a waste of time and energy.

I keep a very rudimentary bike mechanism on hand to use when I can't go for my daily exercise stroll. Now if I could find a foot powered generator or, alternatively, rig up some sort of gennie to my existing crank mechanism, that would be an alternative to solar power (even in SoCal, the sun doesn't always shine).

I rely upon the forum's collective knowledge and wisdom...