Exercise machines typically tell you how many miles you've run or how many calories you've burned. But what about how many watts you've generated? Conventional exercise equipment consumes power while the human energy released during the workout remains untapped. Innovative exercise technology is turning this around, using human energy to create clean, renewable power.
How does it work? Fitness equipment, such as stationary bikes and rowing machines, are fitted with generators and storage devices that use human movement to create electricity. The watts generated are used to operate the machine or provide power for the facility and the surrounding community. A performance monitor displays the number of watts generated during each workout.
Fitness centers power up
A growing number of fitness centers around the country are using this technology to reduce energy costs and their environmental footprint:
- Eco Gym (Rochester, New York) a 1,300-square-foot facility inside an arts-and-sciences center called The Imaginarium, has 21 cardio machines. This equipment produces more than 160 watt-hours of electricity in a single workout and is expected to generate 3,660 kWhs of electricity annually, about 5 percent of the Imaginarium’s annual demand.
- Eco Fitness (Sacramento, Calif.) collects kinetic energy from users' workouts and feeds it into a battery used to power a portion of the gym's operations. A single bike can generate as much as 200 watts per hour, and one spin class produces enough energy to power two fridges for 24 hours. The gym's battery can also be used to power lights and charge cellphones and laptops. Electricity costs dropped from $680 to $30 a month.
- Green Microgym (Portland, Oregon) uses about 85 percent less electricity and its carbon footprint is only 10 percent of a traditional gym. The facility has been drawing electricity from indoor cycling since it opened in 2008.
- Off The Grid Fitness (Scottsdale, Ariz.) claims to be the first green gym in the state. Its cardio machines are either self-powered or wired to return energy back to the gym or even the grid. The gym also uses recycled materials and purchased refurbished equipment.
- Fit for Green (Mission Viejo, Calif.) makes users aware of how much power they've generated through a lights indicator on every screen. Every five lights a user generates equals one watt-hour of power. As of March 2018, 6.1 million lights were generated. Each machine can make as much as a typical home solar panel. Users can also generate points for their favorite social group and raise money for charity.
University campus gyms across the country are retrofitting their equipment, including Howard, James Madison, Texas State and Oregon State. Hotels are getting into the act as well by installing such machines, including Radisson Hotel Group and Wyndham Hotel Group.
How efficient are these machines at converting human energy to electrical energy? Researchers at Albion College (Michigan) compared calories burned to watts generated. Bicycles converted only 8 percent of the caloric output into energy and rowing machines 6 percent.
While power-generating fitness machines won't lead to energy independence any time soon, they provide a great incentive to go to the gym and stay fit.
Visit ngrid.com/smallbusiness or call 800-332-3333 for more information about available incentives and rebates.