One question: WHY ARE TREADMILLS NET ELECTRICITY CONSUMERS??
After all, one of the oldest ways in the world to power something is to set up a treadmill and have a person or animal walk on it. So why on earth do we use ranks of electric-powered treadmills in health clubs? Reverse the setup -- have the energy generated by walking fed back into the grid!! You could even have little graphs on the machine (like the mileage graph on a Toyota Prius) that would tell people how much they were generating so as to give them bragging rights.
People have told me that the amount of power generated would be negligible, but so what? As it is, both electricity and human power are wasted. Even if you only break even, you come out ahead.
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Interesting discussion of this here
Another short discussion of it here on the Forbes.com Whynot? bulletin board. I think it's a great idea.
this is a great idea! everytime i work out i think of the wasted energy.
maybe in urban areas the power would add up to quite a bit. think 4 or 5 gyms within the city all with row upon row of treadmills and other equip full up with patrons puffing away...
i thought the problem was not being able to store the generated energy long term?
in my vision the energy is immediately transferred to network to be distributed where needed.
there could be other uses as well. sounds crazy but imagine a weight loss program that has its patients peddle away to power an elevator. talk about win/win!
Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. I didn't realize the idea had already been posted, because I started writing it up on the "health" page and then switched to "energy" without checking. Mea culpa.
Does anybody know if this gym idea is seriously being developed?
I’ve always thought this was a great idea. Why couldn’t an adapter be made (even for home use) that would simply add generated energy to the grid? Some solar panels are set up so the electricity is either used immediately, and any excess not used by the household, for example, is returned to the grid. The meter with the happy spinning disk simply turns the other way, crediting the household for the amount sent to the grid. An affordable device could be devised that could be attached to current exercise machines.
Stationary human exercise does not generate a tremendous amount of energy. Estimates from stationary bicycle users are about 75 to 150 Watts, provided you are not Lance Armstrong. Pedaling for 1 hour would generate roughly 0.11 kilowatt hours of electricity per person. It would not noticeably reduce household electricity bills, but it would be chipping away at the stone. Think of the additive energy savings if everyone exercising did this. Health clubs could probably make a serious dent in their energy bills and may even net some at the end of the day.
My understanding of why machines do not net energy is due to energy storage and user desires. Companies have made exercise machines that used generated power to run the digital outputs (e.g. my old Nordic track). The problem or undesirable feature was that users had to start moving before they could program the unit for intensity or duration. People didn’t like that. Storing the energy in a battery for future use was, I am guessing, cost prohibitive. It’s cheaper to use a “disposable” battery or plug the machine into the wall.
Any opportunity to tap into the national energy reserve that is “American adipose” would be beneficial on a number of levels.
Yes, in agreeent with Vatch. Think of the health imrovements in a society that self-motored. The NHS wouldn't know it was born! OK some high speed travel is necessary but gradually restructuring the way we do business to allow for longer travel times could result in more, healthier workers. A life work-life balance allround with resources left for the next few generations.
well one way to for sure get exercise and put that energy to useful work is to be a bicycle commuter.