converting energy in the gym

[hewj11]

I had a thought and not sure if this is the section this goes in, but I'll post here.

On some pieces of cardio equipment (bikes elipticals etc) you don't need to plug them in you are the power source for them.

I wanted to know is there a way of taking the engery that one uses and converting it to usable energy that could be hooked up to the town or city provider?

Thus giving energy back and possiably using to run your facility.

Any ideas or comments?

Thanks

[iNow]

There are, in fact, many gyms across the country that already do this energy capture method. It's basically just hooking it up to the treadmill or eliptical like you would any other turbine. The challenge is that there isn't a whole lot of energy, so it's hardly enough to power a city. It can, however, power the lights at the gym, or the vending machines and stuff like that.

 

Long story short, yes, you can do this, it's already being done, and it's a great idea not to just "waste" all of that energy output. Just keep in mind that the levels are too low to scale up to meet all of our power needs. It can just supplement them.

 

Ideally, you would feed a bank of batteries with the exercise equipment and use those to power your needs at night, after your solar panels stop collecting energy.

[hewj11]

A friend was discussing it with me an that was my main problem with it. You don't see a ton of energy as well would you see a return for what you spend in parts to convert the machines and facility? Maybe in the long run. But its better for the enviorment, which is a plus.

Thanks for the relpy and input