If you're reading this, you are a pioneer. You want to make the world a better place for future generations. You know there are no magic bullets that will instantly change everything for the better. You understand that every little bit of progress is good, and you have to start somewhere.
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You also understand that making electricity through human power is not a money-maker all by itself. It's a common sense way to introduce and educate people on all things Eco-Fitness, like healthy eating of less-processed food, to efficient use of facility resources, and building community through consistent exercise. If you have the choice between wasting energy and not wasting it, what would you choose?
Now you can start a Green Gym without having to re-invent a business model, or invent new technology. The equipment now exists and it's affordable. The Green Microgym, established in , is known as the world leader in Eco-Fitness, and is the blueprint for the future of fitness.
Until late , although the technology to retrofit exercise equipment to send electricity back to the grid existed, it was not cost effective to do so. You would have to purchase regular equipment and then retrofit it. That's what I had been doing since . It worked fine for me in my gym, but there was no way to scale up. But now, SportsArt Fitness has come out with a line of grid-tied, plug into the wall fitness equipment, priced competitively with other gym-quality exercise equipment. Their machines are priced on the high end of the gym equipment spectrum, but are not overpriced based on their quality or because they have grid-tied capability. The reasons they are able to do this: 1. They are large enough ($100 million+ annual sales) to be able to do large production runs of the equipment, and 2. They are simply taking out old electronics and putting in new electronics. The price of materials and components has not changed for them. They just had to design new equipment.
Better than Solar/Wind where you have to ADD ON or Find Property.
Although the power output for fitness equipment can't be compared apples to apples with solar or wind due to the limitations of human power (and motivation), it's important to remember this is exercise equipment, and there are already millions of exercise machines in use all over the world. Nothing needs to be done to get ready for this power source, except wait until the current equipment needs to be replaced. We don't need to purchase land and build large structures to harness this energy. The gyms have already been built.
The only need for a professional electrician for installation of this equipment is if the building will need extra circuits to handle all of the new electricity being generated. For example, a spin class with 30 participants will be able to generate more than 3KW. But in most situations, the current commercial power setup in the buildings will be able to handle the added electricity.
SportsArt has the same warranty for this equipment as any of their other equipment, and there is at least one exercise equipment service company in every city that will be able to work on their machines, just like any other brand. If the parts need replacing, whether they are under warranty or not, it's as simple as calling the local service company or SportsArt.
Current equipment turns human energy into heat, then has to be cooled by air conditioning. (1 watt of heat generated = 1 watt of cooling needed).
The most common objection to the viability of this equipment is that it doesn't create THAT much electricity, so it's a waste of time to even think about it. Hopefully, the above facts have covered that objection. But it is important to note that the current 'self-powered' exercise equipment in use in most gyms around the world still has to do something with all of the extra energy being created by their users. The current solution is to put that energy into resistors that heat up inside the machines to dissipate the energy. In a home or small gym, this heat is negligible and wouldn't make a noticeable change in the room. However, in larger gyms where dozens of machines are in use for most of the day, this extra heat adds up and must be cooled by the building's cooling system. So, the user creates extra energy, and then the cooling system uses extra energy to keep the room from getting too hot. This essentially doubles the waste of energy from 'self-powered' exercise equipment. However, grid-tied equipment sends that electricity right back to the building, creating no extra heat. So, instead of spending 100 watts of cooling energy for each machine, you are saving those 100 watts ' a 200 watts net improvement.
by Eric Roston, Bloomberg
As scientists seek more ways to harness nature's power to produce renewable energy, there's one energy source burned naturally every day that isn't being harnessed: calories.
SportsArt, a 42-year-old Taiwanese athletic equipment maker, is trying to change that by selling exercise treadmills, ellipticals and cycles that turn workouts into electricity, feeding it back into the building through an electrical socket. The company recently showcased the third generation of its treadmill to attendees of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
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'Think of a hamster wheel,' said Ruben Mejia, chief technology officer of SportsArt. 'You're the hamster and the treadmill is the wheel. As soon as you start turning that wheel, we've got a generator inside that starts producing power.'
Physical exertion is powered by combustion reactions'small cellular ones. As SportsArt writes in its patent filings, 'it is a pity that the energy is not utilized.'
There is a problem of scale, however. The treadmill's maximum output is 200 watts an hour. The average American uses about 28,000 watt-hours a day. The maximum treadmill workout, generating 200 watts for an hour, would save 2.4 cents, assuming an electricity cost of $0.12 a kilowatt-hour, plus the power that would have been used by a motorized machine.
The company's bikes and elliptical trainers can move up to 250 watts. On the treadmill, a 147-pound person running roughly 8-minute, 20-second miles would put out only 24 watts every 30 minutes, or enough for 4 hours of wifi. A 176-pound person lightly jogging for 20 minutes could power a 60-watt lightbulb long enough to light the room while they're working out.
Factoring in the electricity-use avoided, SportsArt's 'Eco-Powr' equipment with continual use could save almost $900 a year compared with other brands' treadmills, according to Mejia. Units cost about $10,000 each, and are sold to gyms, assisted-living centers, universities and beyond. Consumer models are in the works.
'There's a lot of gyms that are going green and they're going green in a variety of ways.'
Given the small size of the benefit, and a price that's five times more than a traditional treadmill, why would a gym buy one of these? Being even a little green is increasingly a selling point all by itself, or so the thinking goes.
'There's a lot of gyms that are going green and they're going green in a variety of ways, whether it's like zero waste or being a net zero property,' Mejia said.
Paul Crane owns Eco-Gym, a 'sustainable gym' in Brighton, England, that uses SportsArt equipment. In the past, the facility reduced fees based in part on how much power members generate while working out. He said members 'definitely feel motivated and committed to improving their own health and that of the planet.' Other clients include boutique gyms that can charge more for amenities like power-generating equipment, where it's not about saving energy and more about making a statement.
Getting to the gym is difficult enough for busy, working people. Being able to measure one's own power output may be the added mental incentive, or trigger, people need to get moving, even if it's 'just giving people a sense that they are burning energy and seeing some results,' said Dan Ariely, a psychology and behavioral economics professor at Duke University and an author.
Conventional treadmills have motors that put the belt in motion as soon as the workout begins. That costs electricity, as does the electronic workout display. The SportsArt treadmill has no motor. It's powered initially by gravity. The workout begins when a brake on the belt is released. The unit is set at a 4-degree angle relative to the floor, just enough for the belt'which is really a mat composed of horizontal slats rolling on ball bearings to reduce friction'to slip backwards under the weight of the runner or walker. As feet pound forward, the belt spins rollers that capture the motion and convert it into electricity.
A micro-inverter, a device that regulates the flow of current, translates it into the form of electricity powering the house or building, and shoots it right back into the electrical socket. The modest additional power flows to whatever needs it first, nearby electronics that share the same outlet, or deeper into the building. For now at least, the current can't flow through the circuit board, out of the structure, and onto the grid.
Since the machines generate the most energy during more intense workouts, the amount of calories burned doesn't necessarily translate into power. Mejia said that while you can burn a lot of calories taking a three-hour stroll at three miles per hour, 'you're not going to be producing a lot of electricity.'
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