Harnessing the Power of Gym Rats

NBC San Diego ^ | September 3, 2010 | Eric S. Page

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The Greenasium really wants to be green. To do it, the new gym in San Diego is turning its customers into real gym rats.

The Greenasium , which opened Wednesday, has three specialty spin bikes that push electricity back into the grid, helping provide power to the gym and other electricity customers. Its the first human-powered fitness studio in San Diego, according to its owners.

"The bike's are retrofitted by a company up in Seattle that we work with called Resource Fitness," said Greenasium's co-owner Byron Spratt. "As the bike (spins), the wheel creates DC power, converts it to AC power, which is plugged back into the wall, which puts energy back into the grid."

Spratt expects to add elliptical bikes in October to help offset their carbon footprint to an even greater extent.

The 2,600-square-foot gym isn't completely human powered, at least not yet, Spratt said. Their goal is to be balanced, producing enough energy to offset what they consume.

Every three months, management will look at the gym's power-consumption totals, and then the gym will sponsor activities such as a beach cleanup to offset any additional carbon footprint.

The gym's green in other ways, too. Its rubber flooring is made of recycled tires, and the equipment has been refurbished to a near-new state. Other environmentally friendly elements include low-flow showers, dual flush toilets, filtered tap water and a no- to low-plastics policy -- there's no bottled water at the Greenasium.

[jakerobins]

has three specialty spin bikes that push electricity back into the grid, helping provide power to the gym and other electricity customers. Its the first human-powered fitness studio in San Diego, according to its owners.

Sounds like a good plan...Put those prisoners in Cali jails to work...Make em power their own Electric Chair......

[DBrow]

“Spratt expects to add elliptical bikes in October to help offset their carbon footprint to an even greater extent. “

People can generate about 150-250 Watts, and that’s being generous. The clients will emit far more carbon driving there than they can hope to spin into the grid.

But it makes good ad copy. The whole thing is straight out of Brunner’s “The Sheep Look Up”.

[VA_Gentleman]

I always wondered if that was possible.

[Old Flat Toad]

So how many hours of bike riding are necessary to offset a 3 min hot shower in the dark?

[Grizzled Bear]

"The bike's are retrofitted by a company up in Seattle that we work with called Resource Fitness," said Greenasium's co-owner Byron Spratt. "As the bike (spins), the wheel creates DC power, converts it to AC power, which is plugged back into the wall, which puts energy back into the grid."

Wasn't this featured in the novel "Soylent Green?"

[Merlinator]

I think these should be installed in Congress. Just think all the congress critters could be pedaling away powering their own lights and microphones and if we could also harness all their hot air they could heat the place too. Can you just picture that lard-ass Bawny Fwanks pedaling away breathlessly blathering on about cap and trade?

[Moose Burger]

And that juice is kind of useless right out of the bike. Too many fluctuations, and can spike or drop at any moment. The real rate after transformator/regulator/capacitor won’t even be that. Still sounds kind of fun. If they forget about the “help offset their carbon footprint” angle it might be somewhat enjoyable.

[JerseyHighlander]

This used to be an exhibit in the “Universe of Energy” tour at Epcot Center in Florida.

The exhibit was “Video Bicycle.” There, guests pedaled a stationary bicycle to generate electricity. A video monitor displayed how much power ...

[JerseyHighlander]

7 days of continuous bicycling would produce the equivalent energy of one gallon of (pre-ethanol additive) gasoline.

[Arthur McGowan]

IIRC the people on the bikes will put out more carbon generating a power than a power plant.

Not that there’s anything to the carbon hoax.

[One_Upmanship]

This is good news. The last real advances in fitness equipment hasn't been since the turn of the century.

[DemonDeac]

If this can save them money in the longterm and works then good on them. I like it when people think outside the box.

[brookwood]

Cycling like mad for 5 hours produces 1 kilowatt of power. The cost of one kilowatt is about 12 cents, so in a week one bike would generate about $1 worth of electricity. If the equipment costs $100 it pays for itself in 2 years - might make sense, assuming it lasts longer than 2 years without breaking down and is really used 4-5 hours a day 365 days a year. In comparison riding a bike to work looks much better because you are transporting yourself not a 3,000 pound car.