Carolina Macedo investigates why most gyms are not investing in energy harvesting exercise equipment as part of her MSc Sustainable Resource Management dissertation.

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On a typical term time day at 6pm I found myself competing with other users at the Pleasance gym to use a cross trainer. Every piece of equipment was being used and the cardio floor looked like a factory floor, where high-speed systematic motions were working in the production of energy. Then it hit me, what if we could use the energy produced from human exercise and convert it into usable electric energy. I went home that night and researched if such technology existed and if it was commercially available.

Turns out that over the past decade, scientists and engineers have been designing energy harvesting technology that captures, converts and stores small quantities of energy from a variety of naturally occurring energy sources; one of them being from kinetic energy produced from human exercise. In fact, a handful of gym equipment manufacturers (including the manufacturer the Pleasance gym bought equipment from) offer different retrofitted exercise equipment such as spin bikes and elliptical machines, to harness kinetic energy produced from human exercise and convert it into usable electricity. So why were gyms, like the Pleasance gym who was already taking energy efficiency measures and had a relationship with a potential supplier, not investing in this technology?

After further research, I found that retrofitted bicycles with energy harvesting systems were being used for educational, corporate and entertainment events to power movie screenings, smoothie makers and charge phones. Similar technology was also being used in energy-deprived situations to power light bulbs, blend grains and cereals, and in post-hurricane sites for people to charge their phones. So I decided to evaluate the costs and benefits of retrofitting stationary bicycles with energy harvesting systems in the context of a gym, home, leisure centre and energy deprived situation. Questionnaires were first conducted to capture the relevant social and environmental benefits and costs that were neither easily quantifiable, measured or equated with a monetary valuation. Then an economic feasibility study was carried out to investigate if adopting this technology in each setting was financially cost-beneficial.

For the gym, leisure centre and home context it was concluded that this energy source does not generate substantial amounts of electricity or cost savings in electricity bills to be considered by users and gyms. Students did not show greater interest and support for replacing regular cardio equipment for more environmentally friendly ones. Also, participants were not aware of how this technology could contribute to reducing our environmental impact. The energy deprived situation questionnaire was answered by volunteers involved in Syrian refugee camps in Greece and Jordan. It was concluded that this technology would not be suitable in the Jordan camp due to safety issues and the physical infrastructure of the camp, but in Greek camps, it would be suitable mainly for entertainment purposes such as film screenings (as long as the funds were available).

I realised that the opportunity costs of this technology are not a monetary cost, but a lost long-lasting additional benefit of educating people on energy consciousness, changing people&#;s attitudes on energy consumption in energy-intensive societies and an opportunity for making the living conditions of people in energy-deprived situations more bearable. If suppliers of energy harvesting cardio equipment increase consumer awareness of their products and fitness facility users showed greater interest in them, this would drive manufacturers to improve the efficiency and reduce the high costs of retrofitted stationary bicycles. This, in turn, would yield greater financial, social and environmental benefits.

The Case For Green Fitness Equipment:

If you&#;re reading this, you are a pioneer. You want to make the world a better place for future generations. You know there are no magic bullets that will instantly change everything for the better. You understand that every little bit of progress is good, and you have to start somewhere.

You also understand that making electricity through human power is not a money-maker all by itself. It&#;s a common sense way to introduce and educate people on all things Eco-Fitness, like healthy eating of less-processed food, to efficient use of facility resources, and building community through consistent exercise. If you have the choice between wasting energy and not wasting it, what would you choose?

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Powrloo.

Now you can start a Green Gym without having to re-invent a business model, or invent new technology.  The equipment now exists and it&#;s affordable.  The Green Microgym, established in , is known as the world leader in Eco-Fitness, and is the blueprint for the future of fitness.

The Cost to Produce and Purchase the Equipment is the Same

Until late , although the technology to retrofit exercise equipment to send electricity back to the grid existed, it was not cost effective to do so. You would have to purchase regular equipment and then retrofit it.  That&#;s what I had been doing since . It worked fine for me in my gym, but there was no way to scale up.  But now, SportsArt Fitness has come out with a line of grid-tied, plug into the wall fitness equipment, priced competitively with other gym-quality exercise equipment.  Their machines are priced on the high end of the gym equipment spectrum, but are not overpriced based on their quality or because they have grid-tied capability.  The reasons they are able to do this: 1. They are large enough ($100 million+ annual sales) to be able to do large production runs of the equipment, and 2. They are simply taking out old electronics and putting in new electronics.  The price of materials and components has not changed for them.  They just had to design new equipment.

Better than Solar/Wind where you have to ADD ON or Find Property.

Although the power output for fitness equipment can&#;t be compared apples to apples with solar or wind due to the limitations of human power (and motivation), it&#;s important to remember this is exercise equipment, and there are already millions of exercise machines in use all over the world. Nothing needs to be done to get ready for this power source, except wait until the current equipment needs to be replaced.  We don&#;t need to purchase land and build large structures to harness this energy.  The gyms have already been built.

There are No Installation Costs (this equipment is plug and play)

The only need for a professional electrician for installation of this equipment is if the building will need extra circuits to handle all of the new electricity being generated. For example, a spin class with 30 participants will be able to generate more than 3KW.  But in most situations, the current commercial power setup in the buildings will be able to handle the added electricity.

The Equipment is UL Compliant and Comes With a Warranty

SportsArt has the same warranty for this equipment as any of their other equipment, and there is at least one exercise equipment service company in every city that will be able to work on their machines, just like any other brand. If the parts need replacing, whether they are under warranty or not, it&#;s as simple as calling the local service company or SportsArt.

Each Watt Created Saves 1 Watt of Cooling, Essentially Doubling Efficiency

Current equipment turns human energy into heat, then has to be cooled by air conditioning. (1 watt of heat generated = 1 watt of cooling needed).

The most common objection to the viability of this equipment is that it doesn&#;t create THAT much electricity, so it&#;s a waste of time to even think about it. Hopefully, the above facts have covered that objection.  But it is important to note that the current &#;self-powered&#; exercise equipment in use in most gyms around the world still has to do something with all of the extra energy being created by their users.  The current solution is to put that energy into resistors that heat up inside the machines to dissipate the energy.  In a home or small gym, this heat is negligible and wouldn&#;t make a noticeable change in the room.  However, in larger gyms where dozens of machines are in use for most of the day, this extra heat adds up and must be cooled by the building&#;s cooling system.  So, the user creates extra energy, and then the cooling system uses extra energy to keep the room from getting too hot.  This essentially doubles the waste of energy from &#;self-powered&#; exercise equipment.  However, grid-tied equipment sends that electricity right back to the building, creating no extra heat.  So, instead of spending 100 watts of cooling energy for each machine, you are saving those 100 watts &#; a 200 watts net improvement.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Smart Power Generation System for Fitness Machines.