[mortifiedpenguin]

After thinking about this for a while, I think that with some fine-tuning, this would actually not be a bad idea. You could pay people to run on treadmills, which would generate electricity. It would be like wind power, except that the windmill (treadmill) would always be spinning.

People getting tired after running for a while? No problem, just switch them out with another person. You could hire a bunch of people and get them to run in shifts.

Also, treadmills are cheap to build. Way cheaper than a windmill. There's no energy cost to run them, since the people would be the energy. And unlike windmills, the treadmills wouldn't stop when there's no wind. As long as you have a person running on the treadmill, it would never stop, except for when it needs maintenance.

Also, not only could this solve our electricity problem, it could solve America's obesity problem. Clever, eh?

The only problem I can think of is that not much energy would be produced. But if you had a lot of people running at the same time, that coud generate a lot of energy.

So, what do you think? Could it be possible?

[rerere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mortifiedpenguin', '
')The only problem I can think of is that not much energy would be produced.
So, what do you think? Could it be possible?

[big_rc]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mortifiedpenguin', '
')
Also, treadmills are cheap to build. Way cheaper than a windmill. There's no energy cost to run them, since the people would be the energy.

So, what do you think? Could it be possible?

[NeoPeasant]

Exercise power is a good Idea if you simplify it to :Ride a bike to work whenever you can. The energy you "create" is the gas you save plus the energy savings of deferring the maintenance and replacement of a car that sits quietly in the garage until it's needed.

I figure I "create" about a half gallon of gasoline every day by making my 10 mile round trip commute on my bike.

[savethehumans]

Uh--water wheels have run, WITHOUT electricity, for centuries!

[bentstrider]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', 'E')xercise power is a good Idea if you simplify it to :Ride a bike to work whenever you can. The energy you "create" is the gas you save plus the energy savings of deferring the maintenance and replacement of a car that sits quietly in the garage until it's needed.

I figure I "create" about a half gallon of gasoline every day by making my 10 mile round trip commute on my bike.

[frankthetank]

benstrider..

I agree. Motorcycles are so dangerous and it seems that everyone on them only has a learners permit anyways. Very good way to get rid of people:)

[clv101]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', 'E')xercise power is a good Idea if you simplify it to :Ride a bike to work whenever you can. The energy you "create" is the gas you save plus the energy savings of deferring the maintenance and replacement of a car that sits quietly in the garage until it's needed.

I figure I "create" about a half gallon of gasoline every day by making my 10 mile round trip commute on my bike.

[jpatti]

I've wondered about the energy profit in grains.

We grind our grain here for bread and other baking. Grinding grain is hard work. My husband attached a bicycle to the grinder to make it easier to work, as it's easier to use the large muscles of your legs than your arms.

I figure with the grinding and baking bread by hand, the bread has enough kilocalories to make up the work of making the bread and have some surplus. But I think we work off close to half the kilocalories in making the stuff. And that is starting from grain, when most of the work is already done!

What I wonder about is... when you have to till a field, plant, cut the wheat, shock it, harvest it, thresh and winnow it... all by hand labor, how can there be an energy surplus in grain?

There *must* be as our ancestors who developed agriculture were successful, which they wouldn't be if they expended more kilocalories producing food than they gained from the food. Just... it doesn't seem to me there can possibly be *much* of a net gain.

[duff_beer_dragon]

Yeah,

there are - springs that store kinetic energy, like those used in wind-up powered radios for example. You wind it up for so many turns and get x-amount of playtime.

Exercise machines in exisiting or new gyms could feasibly be used to do such - the work is done anyway as of now, the energy could be stored in DC banks and used to feed the Grid for example.

Again, it's the sort of thing that would have been considered and implemented in gyms anyway, if the people who were meant to be in charge and making the decisions had been able to do so from the start of Industry. So it's another example of something that would work, but to re-do it now would take more effort than if it had been done properly to start with.

(I find gyms really unhealthy - they sell terrible unhealthy food, people use poisonous cosmetics and deoderants in them, and they rarely have fresh air ; they have mirrors all over the place (awful energy!) and they stink and often play music - which tends to be terrible too, so you smell sweat from people who mostly eat junk food and pork for example and then an overtone of some nose-destroying cosmetic perfume evil. The other problem they will need to overcome is the same one the car industry fell for - too much electronic gadgetry. Lose it all. All you need is a clock or a stop watch, and clearly marked settings for weights and difficulties on exercise machines.)


I got attacked by some moron over at the Marshall McLuhan forums for posting information about the kinetic-charged springs. I'll bet they are a net-troll on this forum as well and read this post here.

[Optimist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')verage fit male human peddling - 200 Watts. Lance Armstrong peak power - 644 Watts.

[BastardSquad]

I think Duff Beer Dragon and NeoPeasnat are on the right track.I don't think human power would be of much use for producing electricity on the grid,but just doing little things in our daily lives would make a big difference.

Spring powered mechanisms like wind up alarm clocks will probably alot more popular in coming years.I had one of those windup radios but the spring broke .

How many people do you suppose use their dryer to dry their clothes on days when they could just as easily hang them on a clothes line?One thing that really amazes me is how many people are complete sissies when it comes airconditioning.I rarely use mine,only on the absolute hottest days,and if my wife wouldn't whine I wouldn't use it at all.I just can't believe how many people,when the temp hits 85,start cranking their ac's.It blows me away everytime I here someone say "it's soooooo hot out,if I don't get in where it's cool I'm gonna die"I just want to slap them.The pioneers didn't have ac and they managed to get by just fine.

[Kingcoal]

Peak Oil should make electricity more expensive, but it will probably be down on the list of priorities, at the top of which will be transportation, food, heating fuel.

I have an idea: The shiverator. It generates electricity from shivering motions. The only thing required is a cold human.

[khebab]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('NeoPeasant', 'E')xercise power is a good Idea if you simplify it to :Ride a bike to work whenever you can. The energy you "create" is the gas you save plus the energy savings of deferring the maintenance and replacement of a car that sits quietly in the garage until it's needed.

I figure I "create" about a half gallon of gasoline every day by making my 10 mile round trip commute on my bike.

[rerere]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('duff_beer_dragon', '
')there are - springs that store kinetic energy,

[gg3]

Yow!, so close but so far! Y'all missed a really obvious application! Simply require by law that any new equipment installed in an exercise gym, also produce electricity and connect to the grid.

Think of the energy produced & wasted in all of those "nasty smelly" exercise gyms every day. What would it cost to build exercise machines that turned generators rather than e.g. lifting weights or otherwise producing nothing more than heat? Probably not much, considering the high cost of all these "high tech" exercise machines (most of the "high tech" aspects of which are merely frills, as someone noted).

Now look at a case of a typical exercise gym. If you have e.g. 50 people in a room, producing 200 watts each, that's 10 KW constant output. Feed it through a battery bank merely for the sake of power conditioning, and feed it back into the grid.

If the concept proves technically feasible, it's the kind of thing that could reasonably be required by law for all exercise gyms to install. The gyms would recoup costs by selling power back to the utilities, though perhaps it would take a few years as somone pointed out. Some kind of government loans (or loan guarantees) or favorable tax treatment could be used as a positive incentive.

Another possibility: gyms that are selling power, might have a lower cost structure than gyms that are letting it go to waste. This might be a source for a rate reduction to members, thereby providing a market mechanism that favors the energy-producing gyms over the energy-wasting ones. So if "Green's Gym" is doing better than "Gold's Gym" on this, there's an incentive for Gold's to install these machines also. Ideally it's better to work this through a market mechanism than through regulation; the hard question is finding investors for the first example.

Also worth noting, people often go to the gym after work, which is a peak electricity demand period. So you get power on the grid at a time when it's more needed.

[tmazanec1]

A few months ago, Wired magazine had a "Found" page (last printed page) of a combined gymnasium/power plant.

[WebHubbleTelescope]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('tmazanec1', 'A') few months ago, Wired magazine had a "Found" page (last printed page) of a combined gymnasium/power plant.

[JLK]

I have been thinking about this idea for a long time. I think he would actually worked pretty well as a marketing ploy for exercise machine manufacturers. Go to the club and do some social good as well.

In addition, just imagine the potential that exists in the corrections industry!