Can fitness gyms across the World use...

[Blue Were Rhino]

...their treadmills to generate Green power? Could gyms across the World use their treadmills, bikes & weight machines to generate electricity? And provide power to their own lights and maybe even to the grid - practical or impractical? Much of the homeless have always been Green by recycling cans. Maybe homeless shelters could get treadmilss from Gyms acquiring new ones and have an option for the homeless to make some money by generating electricity.

[Johnny U]

thats a good idea! you should sell kits that pople could put on their home treadmillas and power a home generator to decrease their own use of electricity. not sure if it would make a dent but it might. gyms could reduce member fees this way too. it would help them stay competative. like i said, not sure how much impact it would have but worth more investigation.

[jbtalksalot_09]

I dont see how that would work... Gym treadmills count calories, miles, and all kinds of other things. They also go using electricity. Any electricity that they produce would be used by them. It would be too expensive just to build for that use.

[Blah Blah]

This is a good question because as people become more health conscious, many exercise in clubs on machines and burn energy that isn't utilized. Some of the answers so far say that machines require energy to run. This is true on the treadmill, but a bicycle, elliptical, or other machines could be user-powered and capture the collective energy of those exercising.The energy collected would only be enough to power the display. But that is fine. It is power generated and not wasted. Perhaps some of the lighting at the gym could also be powered by the workouts. There will come a day when this will actually happen. But with a lot of energy questions, the cost of the energy needs to increase as the cost of conserving the energy decreases for there to be many more appliances and applications that are energy efficient. The economics will drive the solutions. You can be confident that when there is an economic benefit, there will be little delay until there is a solution provided.That said, right now, to add the capabilities to machines to capture energy, the costs exceed the benefits. But that may change. Actually, it will change. And some day, what you propose will happen.What do you think of hybrid electric bicycles that capture the power generated when they go downhill or break, store it, and use it when it goes uphill. That is similar to the hybrid car technology. That technology makes sense, and would likely be standard for "commuter bicycles" when the costs are sufficiently low.When it comes to many environmental solutions, when the costs decrease sufficiently to create a net benefit, the solution will take hold. If it hasn't, it is likely because of the economics.

[gcnp58]

You won't like this, but it is true. Do the math. The per capita electricity consumption is around 32,000 watt-hours per day (12,000 kW-hrs per year per person). A typical reasonably fit person on a bicycle might be able to produce 200 watt-hrs (riding hard for an hour produces 200 watts (most people are not fit enough to generate 200 watts in an hour (Floyd Landis, for example, produced 280 watts per hour for 8 hrs, and he (or a cyclist like him) is at the top in terms of sustained power output by a human)). So if everyone in the country rode a stationary cycle for an hour, it would generate less than a per cent of the total electricity required. Using humans to generate electricity doesn't work. We're not strong enough.edit: Although generating electricity this way is pointless, commuting by walking, running or cycling saves huge amounts of energy. This energy saving is mainly due to not moving 2000 kg of steel along with you every time you go someplace.

www.energy.ca.gov (http://www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/us_percapita_electricity_2003.html)

[terrypk]

I agree with gcnp58 - any one person cannot make a dent. However, if all of the health clubs asked manufacturers to make new models that could output any electricity generated to a battery bank, then eventually health clubs could reduce their total consumption from the grid. It's a good idea. Health clubs could also use solar hot water, solar voltaic and other technologies to reduce their energy use and carbon footprint. Everyone should do it. It starts with a trickle...