Regine May 15, 2006 body

Energy supply from gym workout

It is estimated that the average person produces up to 300 watts of electricity during a workout session – enough to power a washing machine for an hour.

Scientists at Stirling University are working on a grid that can harness electricity from exercise bikes, rowing machines, treadmills and cross-trainers and use it to power the gyms themselves or even light up hotel bedrooms and kitchens.

Antal Lakner’s wall-painting workout machine

Researchers Tao Pei and Emmanuel Pogoson’s system would store electricity in a similar way to wind farms and wave machines. Gym equipment would be attached to generators or a central power source that could convert kinetic energy from movement into mechanical energy.

Is it possible that no one had thought about it before?

UPDATES: thanks to LeisureArts for reminding me that such project already exists: the Notions of Expenditure.
Alex points me to this bikepower used to generate electricity, but i have a soft spot for this ingenious water-pumping merry-go-round.

Image from Antal Lakner’s Passive Working Devices series, a sarcastic view on how hi-tech machines have changed people’s relationship with the environement and with their own bodies.
Related: Mobile design for runners, Bikes turned into game controllers, the wonderful Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Body Workout MP3s, Double-Gravity Suit System.

Via Scotsman.

6Comments

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1

mike perreault on May 15, 2006 at 2:20 pm

I have been thinking about this for some time. Most cardio machines use electrical generation as a means of creating resistance in the mechanism (sort of like regenerative braking) this energy could be shunted to storage devices rather than being dissapated in load banks. In turn the energy could be used to power the TV banks or lighting or other uses. The gym member could log on and off the machines and be granted membership credits based on the number of kilowatt hours they generate during the year.
Mike
2

LeisureArts on May 15, 2006 at 2:39 pm

Someone else thinking about it and collecting proposals:
Notions of Expenditure
3

Karl Jones on May 15, 2006 at 3:02 pm

Prison labor power: convicts pedaling generator bikes. I thought it up as a satire, but it’s so obvious — so potentially profitable — that life will probably imitate art.
4

GaryG on May 15, 2006 at 5:18 pm

The late Screaming Lord Sutch (British rock singer/leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party) had a policy in his manifesto that joggers would have to run on giant treadmills to generate power to help heat the homes of the elderly.

He never won a single election despite policies like this. :)
5

BD on May 17, 2006 at 6:27 pm

The writers of Gilligan’s Island thought of this. :)
6

Julian on May 17, 2006 at 7:48 pm

For an instalation piece several years ago I hooked up my racing bike to a generator and powered the exhibition. The various other pieces required electricity when being viewed or used and as such the more people interacted with the artworks the harder I had to work… The main function was to make the audience feel guilty about gawking at art… For the 2 hour show I produced an average of 300 watts with peaks into the 1200’s.

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