Can fitness gyms across the World use their treadmills to generate Green power?

Question

Could gyms across the World use their treadmills, bikes & weight machines to generate electricity? And provide power to their own lights and maybe even to the grid - practical or impractical?

Much of the homeless have always been Green by recycling cans. Maybe homeless shelters could get treadmilss from Gyms acquiring new ones and have an option for the homeless to make some money by generating electricity.

Answer 1

I agree with gcnp58 - any one person cannot make a dent.  However, if all of the health clubs asked manufacturers to make new models that could output any electricity generated to a battery bank, then eventually health clubs could reduce their total consumption from the grid.  It's a good idea.  Health clubs could also use solar hot water, solar voltaic and other technologies to reduce their energy use and carbon footprint.  Everyone should do it.  It starts with a trickle...

Answer 2

Look at all the answers here. The diversity of many minds coming together on "one" idea. We all laughed at the post by The Masked Masala. But THAT is exactly what I mean. In my feeble memory here, let me make a list of people that were laughed at by most:

*) the Wright Bros, fly..like a bird, are you kidding?

*) Thomas Edison...replace my oil lamp with what...and do it in the whole town?

*) Your going to do what...bring the toilet "inside" the house?

*) Henry Ford...I won't have to hitch up my horse to go for supplies? I'm trading gasoline for hay.

*) Chuck Yeager...break the sound barrier?

*) Ray Kroc...what do you mean when you say "fast food?"

It's people thinking differently that will make the future. The solutions should benefit the consumers and not only satisfy big business profits...like the oil companies. I'm not saying that oil companies are not now doing something green, but it will take more than hearing "big oil is working to help you" for me to SEE the result say...in lower prices! Maybe not treadmills, but stair steppers, stationary bikes (not powered), Here is the question to ask: Is this cost prohibitive? That is to say, will it cost more to implement than we get in return? I would rather have 1% of 100 people than 100% of one person. In unity there is strength.

Answer 3

That was sooo funny. LMFAO...especially the bit about the homeless I know its not very PC to laugh about things like this and I really didnt want to but it just popped out.... ;^)

   Anyway, I had a simmilar idea that it would be possible to put a tiny dynamo in a babies dummy (pacifier?) and plug it into the grid. People could drop the babies off at a "pre school generating station" (P.S.G.S.)  for a couple of hours and they could all just lie in rows sucking their dummy and we would be free of fossil fuels....

Answer 4

You won't like this, but it is true.  Do the math.  The per capita electricity consumption is around 32,000 watt-hours per day (12,000 kW-hrs per year per person).  A typical reasonably fit person on a bicycle might be able to produce 200 watt-hrs (riding hard for an hour produces 200 watts (most people are not fit enough to generate 200 watts in an hour (Floyd Landis, for example, produced 280 watts per hour for 8 hrs, and he (or a cyclist like him) is at the top in terms of sustained power output by a human)).  So if everyone in the country rode a stationary cycle for an hour, it would generate less than a per cent of the total electricity required.  

Using humans to generate electricity doesn't work.  We're not strong enough.

edit:  Although generating electricity this way is pointless, commuting by walking, running or cycling saves huge amounts of energy.  This energy saving is mainly due to not moving 2000 kg of steel along with you every time you go someplace.

Answer 5

This is a good question because as people become more health conscious, many exercise in clubs on machines and burn energy that isn't utilized.  Some of the answers so far say that machines require energy to run.  This is true on the treadmill, but a bicycle, elliptical, or other machines could be user-powered and capture the collective energy of those exercising.

The energy collected would only be enough to power the display.  But that is fine.  It is power generated and not wasted.  Perhaps some of the lighting at the gym could also be powered by the workouts.  There will come a day when this will actually happen.  But with a lot of energy questions, the cost of the energy needs to increase as the cost of conserving the energy decreases for there to be many more appliances and applications that are energy efficient.  The economics will drive the solutions.  You can be confident that when there is an economic benefit, there will be little delay until there is a solution provided.

That said, right now, to add the capabilities to machines to capture energy, the costs exceed the benefits.  But that may change.  Actually, it will change.  And some day, what you propose will happen.

What do you think of hybrid electric bicycles that capture the power generated when they go downhill or break, store it, and use it when it goes uphill.  That is similar to the hybrid car technology.  That technology makes sense, and would likely be standard for "commuter bicycles" when the costs are sufficiently low.

When it comes to many environmental solutions, when the costs decrease sufficiently to create a net benefit, the solution will take hold.  If it hasn't, it is likely because of the economics.

Answer 6

i was actually talking to my friends about that idea today

b/c i jog on treadmill all the time

so it would be a good idea to generate energy while working out

but the thing is

it's really expensive to set up the equipment

it would take probably at least 50 to 100 years to actually break even with the cost of setting things up

homeless recycle that's b/c they dont have jobs and recycling gets them some kind of money

Answer 7

Some treadmills can generate electricity, but most are net power users, as you set them to a given speed and than follow along at that speed.  In order to generate power, you'd have to be somehow anchored to the surroundings (holding onto the safety bar, in some kind of harness) which would be neither comfortable nor condusive to good excercise.

A more likely candidate would be stationary bicycles, elliptical trainers and their ilk, where you excercise against resistance.  If you provided that resistance with a motor/ generator, then you could indeed generate greenish electricity.

The problem with this is that it is hard to regulate.  Our power distribution system works with large generating equipment running at predictible loads, with control over turbine speed when more power is required. It is not well suited, particularly in its control systems, to a large number of small generators operating at different speeds, and starting and stopping sporadically.

It can be done, but there would need to be some rational way of collecting the power generated and forwarding it to the grid as a more predictible, constant product.  Nevertheless an interesting idea--it's always good to look for places unharnessed energy (but rarely economical to harness it)

Answer 8

I dont see how that would work... Gym treadmills count calories, miles, and all kinds of other things. They also go using electricity. Any electricity that they produce would be used by them. It would be too expensive just to build for that use.

Answer 9

thats a good idea! you should sell kits that pople could put on their home treadmillas and power a home generator to decrease their own use of electricity. not sure if it would make a dent but it might. gyms could reduce member fees this way too. it would help them stay competative. like i said, not sure how much impact it would have but worth more investigation.

Answer 10

There was a time not too long ago (and at 25, if I can remember so should others), that you could walk into Sears and walk out with a treadmill that moved from the power of one's legs.  It wasn't as smooth of a run and you didn't have the benefits of things like flex-decks and heart rate monitors, but I'm sure we could find a way to improve upon the basic concept.  But I think building on that, it could work and create a net energy gain.  However, if we couldn't retrofit current treadmills, it would require gyms to switch machines thus creating significant waste.

I like the bike ideas.