Originally Posted by
fourfa
First thing I see is despite the 6V / 3W engraved prominently on the hub, the app reports pulling 6W at 10mph, and 10W at 18mph. Any guesses what kind of conversion efficiency the dynamo offers? Is this actually 20W of drag at the wheel, or 12W, or what? Any clue?
First, those 6V/3W are specified with a constant 12 Ohm load at 15 km/h (~9 mph), second your forumloader is a lot of things, but not a constant load. To my knowledge there are no measurements dealing with dyno hub efficencies when the hub is coupled with a usb charger. But in a (german) bicycle magazine (fahrradzukunft.de), the SON28 was measured with a 24 Ohm load (6W), giving peak efficiencies of 78% at 10 km/h and 70% and 30 km/h (~19 mph). Usually dyno hubs are
more efficient at higher loads, and since the forumslader has an IC, which adapts the load to the speed, you probably have at least 75% efficiency at all speeds. So you'll end up with 13-14W mechanical power required for your 10 W, which is still less than the drag induced by a lousy 3 W sidewall dyno (>15W at 20 mph)...
Source https://fahrradzukunft.de/14/neue-nabendynamos-im-test/ (see graphs 17 and 18 and the paragraph below those graphs)