Gym of the Future? Create Alternative Energy While Burning Calories. Really.
- Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:47am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Reddening, a rivulet of sweat running across her cheek, Amy McCullough hunched over the stationary bike, pumped her legs like crazy and began producing serious power — enough watts to run a flat-panel TV and a ceiling fan.
She thrust her arms upward and exclaimed: “Oh, 180!”
And, with that, her electrical output drooped. The generator attached to her exercise machine slowed, and the digital readout from the device on the handlebars fell below 100 watts.
The transient burst was a personal best for the 43-year-old legal aid lawyer who works out five days a week at a storefront fitness center in north Portland where members on exercise machines fitted with compact generators can burn calories and generate electricity at the same time.
Their workouts satisfy a modicum of the electrical draw at the 3-year-old Green Microgym. More important, they satisfy a demand among its 200 members to be fit in a way that fits Portland’s green-indie-local ethos.
The 3,000-square-foot gym aims for a neighborhood trade. It features solar panels, recycled toilet paper, renewable-source flooring and lots of reminders on the wall about turning off lights, fans and TVs.
“I was really attracted to the idea that it would be green,” said McCullough, who joined shortly after the gym opened in 2008. “I could go in and generate electricity. How cool is that?”
It has occurred to many exercisers during long stretches on machines that it would be cool to turn sweat into watts. In recent years, a few tinkerers and entrepreneurs have brought the idea to market.
So far they have but a teensy sliver. The two leading startups sell equipment to retrofit existing bikes and elliptical trainers, and each reports hooking up about 1,000 machines. An executive of one company estimates that American fitness centers house 8 million to 10 million machines that could generate power.
They don’t, though. Like much in energy that’s efficient or alternative, from plug-in cars to compact fluorescents, initial capital outlays are steep. Absent a subsidy, or a quantifiable green marketing rationale, the returns on investment don’t come quickly, if at all.
Kurt Broadhag, a Los Angeles consultant to health clubs and an advocate of greening them, says it appears the payback period for electricity-generating exercise equipment is about 15 years — two to three times the machines’ life span.
“The only sense it makes is in educating people in taking care of the environment,” he said.
When Adam Boesel opened the Green Microgym in Portland’s artsy, gentrifying Alberta district, he figured on a market among people already educated about the environment.
The former teacher from Seattle looked at Portland, a city that, when cut, bleeds green. It’s regularly in top 10 lists for bicycle and mass transit commuting, recycling, composting, energy-efficient buildings and so on.
“When I was researching Portland businesses, they all were talking about sustainability — all the good ones,” he said.
He’s gotten a lot of publicity about the technology — helpful for a business that opened on credit-card financing a few weeks before the economy tanked.
But the machines, he said, are “just the shiny wrapper on a package, which is energy efficiency,” something gym members such as Martha Jones take seriously.
“Whoops, I have to turn off the lights,” she said at the end of an interview in the gym’s basement studio, dashing back inside.
Prominent in the gym are signs that explain how to use the individual, adjustable controls for lights and fans. A wall-mounted button connects to a remote device that allows the cable boxes to be shut down, not just put on standby and using 29 watts when the flat-panel TVs are not in use.
Jones is an Intel engineer who likes seeing her workout quantified in watts. But it’s not primarily the electricity that attracts her to the Green Microgym.
“It’s just really supportive,” she said. “If you have somebody who knows you, who knows your name, they will keep you moving. I know for sure I will cheat right and left on my workout without that.”
She counts hoofing it to the gym as warm-up and cool-down. “And I do more shopping in Alberta because I’m walking here,” she said. “It helps the local businesses.”
Boesel sees opportunity in such thinking. Emerging from what he called scary times in the recession, he’s franchised a second neighborhood gym in southeast Portland and plans to open a third on his own. With a Seattle partner, he’s getting into the manufacturing end, selling machines whose plugs feed electricity from the machine into a gym’s distribution system.
Theoretically, in states like Oregon with “net metering” rules, such machines could power the gym itself and feed excess energy into the grid, perhaps generating a utility bill credit. But that level of output would likely be rare, especially in big gyms heavy on lights, heating, cooling and other energy draws. Most often, electricity-generating machines would supplant some of a gym’s draw from the grid, a smaller savings.
Boesel said he doesn’t try to calculate how many kilowatt-hours the Green Microgym produces. “The payback period is irrelevant to me,” he said.
But the machines themselves and the potential they represent are “pretty cool,” he said. “It’s not inevitable that all the machines will make electricity someday. … It’s all going to have to be pushed along. That‘s what I think I’m doing.”
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Comments (77)
flyoverbob
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:45amAdd your comments
Report Post »svedka
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:26amI like the idea as long as the government doesn’t start funneling them money and they are operating in as private a marketplace as can be in our new economy than I am all for it, why not spin and generate at the same time. I think more fatties might take to excersize.
Report Post »powhatan
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:26amwell..we will all have to do this soon enough…..just to keep our refrigerators going…pathetic in the year 2011…
Report Post »dthomps6
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:24amMan! I had this idea years ago. I’m glad someone is trying it.
Report Post »BOMUSTGO
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 11:18amNext they can turn playgrounds into power plants. Convert see-saws, swings and merry-go-rounds to generators. Why don’t they just tap all that hot air coming out of D.C.?
Report Post »thegodfather
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:19amI wonder how much electricity these green wackos can generate, when you pull the tab off a beer can.
Report Post »quarter horseman
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:04amI see the Flintstones type car for us in the future, just get in start walking and it charges the battery so you can drive it later.
Report Post »RGVbob
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:45amA chicken in every pot and a windmill powering every car? Ahhh, the Greenies will save us!
Report Post »Dale
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:37am“It features solar panels, recycled toilet paper, renewable-source flooring and lots of reminders on the wall about turning off lights, fans and TVs.” Now that recycled toilet paper is a real draw – pardon the pun.
Report Post »nosycophant
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:35amThats a AL jazeera necklace.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:34amAfter the local, state and federal taxes, fees and equipment and facility mandates, I bet they can make a .0000005% profit! Just don‘t pass gas or you’ll lose that in fines!
Report Post »texasfarmer
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:30amSo after they stink the place up they take a hot shower (electricity), use air conditioning (electricity) , drive to the facility (gas), consume more food because they are hungry (all kinds of energy). All to watch a flat screen and run a fan. Nobel idea, completely bonkers.
Report Post »proliance
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:47amNot to mention all the CO2 they produce. Think of the children!!!
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 11:24amAll things that they’d do with or without this measure in place. With the measure in place, they objectively “use” less electricity than if the measure was not in place.
The point isn’t to become some kind of energy neutral society, as I read it, the point is to offset some energy usage.
This is a private business using its own money to experiment, a true free market impulse. Don‘t hate on it just because they’re using something that is called “green”. At least they’re not taxing you to do it.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:29amBack in the 50′s we had pedal cars for little kids , then graduated to bicycles. They were the original green vehicles. We should put pedals on Air Force One and if Barry and his gaggle want to travel , get pedaling.
Report Post »lmy6545
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:26amthis is how they will solve our energy crises. putting us on stationary bikes to generate energy. it would be a win win for them. reduce fat and create a green energy source. they will set up “fat camps” everywhere, instead of wind fields.
Report Post »salvawhoray
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:11amyears ago on a tv show called “Real People” a guy hooked up an exercise bike to his tv so if his family wanted to watch tv they had to power it up by riding the exercise bike.
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:53amI remember that episode! Used to love that show as a kid. :)
Report Post »POdVet
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 1:13pmYes he used a used bicycle, an alternator from a junkyard car and a voltage transformer. The entire thing cost him under $150. These guys are charging over $1000 for the same setup in a pretty wrapper. Typical Eco-business, charge more for less and suggest it’s the only sensible thing to do.
Report Post »dizzyinthedark
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:10am…..nice idea, too bad it won’t work. Besides, where is everyone going to get the money from now on to continue their contracts with these gyms? Better to just start walking/jogging in your own neighborhood–it’s free, it’s greener than that building will ever be too!!! DUH!!
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:33amI have access to a far more diverse range of exercise equipment in a gym than I could ever reasonably muster in my basement.
Report Post »skoz14
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:09amyeah except i use free weights and running outside is harder than running on a treadmill.
Report Post »Rick54
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:07amand the spent batteries will be found in our landfill’s and the sides of the roads, or are they biodegradable?
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:01amThis will never catch on entirely, because people are already couch potatoes now. They don’t want to have to sit on or stand on a treadmill, or exercise bike to generate power to watch or listen or work on their computers. If people were not laze to begin with then we would have an obesity problem today. So while I applaud the effort, the reality of it will never catch on. Don‘t let the Obama’s see it. They will make it law.
Report Post »let us prey
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:57amMaybe I can run in a hamster wheel while working on the beet farm.
Report Post »NOTAMUSHROOM
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:57amOnce again proving that Progressives only care about how they FEE, not about what makes any sense.
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:32amHow so? They’re spending their own cash in their own private business. Seems like a fair case of “live and let live” here.
Report Post »NOTAMUSHROOM
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:13amMaybe you missed my point.
“Kurt Broadhag, a Los Angeles consultant to health clubs and an advocate of greening them, says it appears the payback period for electricity-generating exercise equipment is about 15 years — two to three times the machines’ life span.
“The only sense it makes is in educating people in taking care of the environment,” he said.”
So apparently, it makes them FEEL GOOD AND MAKES NO ECONOMIC SENSE THEREBY VERY SOON THEY WILL GO BROKE UNLESS THEY CAN MAKE A PROFIT BY CHARGING PEOPLE LOTS OF $ TO USE THEIR VERY EXPENSIVE, NOT COST EFFECTIVE MACHINES. Then they will go out of business and they won’t FEEL GOOD anymore. Get it?
Report Post »GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:57amBut the lifespan of a generator is not 2-5 years. The treadmills will have to be replaced whether there’s a generator hooked to it or not, that’s a given cost of business. So assuming that the simple machine known as the generator holds out 15 years, and by most accounts it will, they’ll get their money back.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:55amMake all video games pedal powered, fat kid problem solved. Next?
Report Post »TheGreyPiper
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:40amExactly what I was thinking. I’d like to make my kids do bike time like that in exchange for computer/xbox time.
Report Post »Leadthemtothelight
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:50amI saw a prison report not to long ago like this. The woman was on a bike and it was powering a tv. If it makes you feel better to create electricity while working out….more power to ya….lol…..
Report Post »mrsmileyface
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:50amHURRY!!!!!!!!!!! were loosing power in St. Louis. Everyone on the treadmill!!!! STUPID! STUPID STUPID!!
Report Post »starman70
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:40amI wonder if they will try to collect methane released from the anal orfice during exercise and use it to heat the gym?
Report Post »ozchambers
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:50amWhy dont they just put all of us americans in oversized, eco-friendly hamster wheels to supply the world’s energy needs?
Report Post »BernieKittyCat
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:05amhee hee
Report Post »starman70
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:30amDON’T suggest anything like that! Obummer and Sunstein may try to do it.
Report Post »Lloyd Drako
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:17amHa! The same thought occurred to me. What a wonderful way for the unemployed to EARN their benefits and get fit into the bargain. Not to mention the historical precedent: the treadmills installed in 19th-century British workhouses.
Report Post »Vickie Dhaene
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 12:13pmWas thinking the same thing. Giant hamster wheels.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:49amNothing new. The Professor had Gilligan doing that decades ago.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:50amTrue, thus showing they knew back then the myth of green energy is little more than smoke and mirrors along with a mega dose of hollywood style hype.
Report Post »TC
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:51amLMAO! I remember that episode!
Report Post »@leftfighter
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:56amLMAO!
On the other hand, if there’s a market for it, it’ll succeed. As long as they don’t get government money to keep the doors open, more power to them.
Report Post »BIGJAYINPA
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 8:57amAs I kick back in the Lazy-Boy with my favorite beverage and a bag of chips I will raise my glass to the tree-hugging yoyos working their butts off to power my flat screen. Thanks people.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:01amSo will this be the new ‘green jobs’ the administration mentions of? Running on treadmills to power a fan for a short time? Or other such types of garbage they actually expect us to believe?
Report Post »TexasCommonSense
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:03amUnlike like the Professor and Gilligan, the Green Gym has NO SHOWERS. Gross! Wasn’t it amazing how clean and fresh everyone looked on the deserted island?
Report Post »watchmany2k
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:08amI agree nothing new, however this is what we may be reduced to when
Report Post »Electricity rates “necessarily skyrocket” the concepts are sound
from a bike to a giant rat wheel you CAN generate power to charge batteries.
See my article http://www.watchman2012.com
“My Kind of Generation”
I list MANY concepts there including a swingset !!
Gonzo
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:10amTexasCommonSense
Report Post »Especially Marianne…yowza ;-)
GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 9:24amThere‘s nothing wrong with ’green energy’ folks. What’s wrong is assuming that it can supply all of our needs. It cannot. Not even close. But it can supplement our needs, and in cases like this with private companies enacting private experiments, then I say, bully for them. I’d much prefer the greenie who was willing to risk his own capital than I would the one out sneering for legislation to steal my money.
Report Post »just happy
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:09amreply to Watchmany2k your site is interesting BUT too glitzy to bright to look through. bright blue on gray doesn’t work
Report Post »Buck Bagaw
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 10:22amGREEN, it’ the new RED!
Report Post »Brooke Lorren
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 11:43amI’ve been thinking about doing something like that myself. Not that I care about the environment, but because at some point I expect electricity to be so expensive that I won‘t be able to afford it unless I’m making it myself.
Report Post »Robert-CA
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 11:57amI remember when we were kids we have the same thing on our bikes to power the lights on our bicycles .I’m sick & tired of hearing GREEN this & GREEN that cause it’s costing us a lot of GREEN paper that should stay in our pockets .
Report Post »What Would Jesus Vote
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 12:44pmBrooke
I love how you say “not that I care about the environment” like that’s such a terrible thing. Why is that a “left” thing? The right is so bull-headed and stupid.
Report Post »Brooke Lorren
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 12:53pmIt’s a terrible thing because people are placing the concerns of other human beings over “mother Earth.” It has gotten to the point of being Earth worship. As a Christian, I do not worship the Earth. I do believe that we should be good stewards… as in, don’t purposely do things to mess it up, but I do believe that the Earth was made by God for people to use. Animals were made to eat. Oil was put there for us to use as energy. Responsibility, yes. Going overboard, no.
Report Post »thermonator
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 1:08pmIf Obama and his wife have their way……… this will be how you power your house.
Report Post »What Would Jesus Vote
Posted on April 26, 2011 at 2:07pmSo, wanting to keep the planet inhabitable is “earth worship”?
You’re really got it far in there. It must hurt your neck to sit down.
The problem with you christians is that you fear and loathe education and knowledge. Probably because the more educated a person gets, the less they believe the mother goose stories.
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