challenge yourself: try to live for one month without using electricity. What kind of creative solutions will you come up with? An idea from Ingetje Wielenga

is he allowed to create energy himself? for example by making a small windmill from a bicycle dynamo and charging a battery that way?
Or by making a potato battery? http://www.miniscience.com/projects/potatoelectricity/

It's fun thinking about this and seeing what is and isn't possible. Because how to keep this website up to date and filming the things that I do? Could I make an exception for that? Like 1 hour a day for these purposes? Or only self generated power?

And work, I'm curious to know how much biking is necessary to keep a computer running :-) I guess I'll be fit in the end of the month!

an average cyclist can make 150W of power (enough for a laptop, a phone charger and other small equipment, like your internet router). If you use an energy bike you are able to charge these devices, but not to use your fridge for example (or you'll have to cycle 24/7). I think it's a nice idea to have to cycle to charge your equipment.
If you are good, and you have very good equipment, you would be able to make more than 500W.
The low impact man (http://lowimpactman.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/wereldpremiere-op-de-gentse-feesten/) has a energy bike, maybe you can use it for a month?

Looks like I need to freshen up my knowledge on electricity!!

Bicycle Generator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVAZIDFMRXY

Well I did it for 10 years, but without fridge, computer etc. I did use batteries for my alarm clock and had a gas lamp. Frankly, I didn't miss it.

I suppose the aim of this idea is to make yourself and us aware of energy use, and the potential to save energy, correct? My suggestion is that even more interesting then could be to set yourself the challenge to reduce your electricity bill by 50% (for example)! This obliges you to really have a good look at what consumes how much, and how to save. This could be very interesting for all of us and will bring a lot of information and solutions to the surface.
Living for 1 month without any electricity is I think not realistic, for nobody, and though it may oblige us to look for original solutions like this bike, it is much more enlightening to see whether and how your able to REALLY save energy - a lot.

It sounds like a nice idea. But I agree with Joan. It seems more like a survival experiment and not so much like a realistic step towards a more sustainable future.
If Maarten (and who ever goes with him;-)) can reduce his electricity consumption let's say by 10% or 20% and than maintain that preferably for longer than one month he might set an example many of us could follow without moving back into a cave.
It sounds a little less exciting but the environment probably gains more by changing habits than going extreme for a limited period of time...

maybe maarten can do both... in the first half month he shows us how it would be to not have electricity. Not being able to watch a movie on your laptop -> let's go out to the park. And the second half is about saving electricity and how to maintain the lower electricity usage. This way the first half learns you how to save in the second half (because you might realize that you didn't miss all things that you weren't allowed to use)

I really like the idea of trying to use less electricity. True: this would give us more knowledge on how to safe electricity in our own lives then if he would not use electricity at all.
I think Bart's idea of doing both is a really good solution, cause living without electricity will definitely teach us things as well. Also with Maartens first idea, not producing any garbage, he went all the way. Not with the idea to live like that or that we should. But by not producing garbage he fully experienced how we unnoticeable produce so much garbage (or in this case: use electricity). That's why I think it would be still a valuable experience to live 2 weeks without electricity. So Maarten can evaluate what are the easy things to cut and what he can't go without. Then in the second part he can find solutions to do the things he needs the most with less.