When someone goes to ‘work’ they get paid, but when you go to the gym to ‘workout’ you have to pay them – why? Why should we have to pay to workout, why can’t we get paid – luckily health insurance companies now give discounts to people with gym memberships – and that’s nice, but we are still expending energy – which in physics means work. When we expend energy at the gym it is wasted – why?
Why waste energy – think of all the calories we are burning – that my friends is energy. Shouldn’t we get paid for it? Maybe use that energy to charge tech devices, run the lights at the gym, or play a video monitor in front of us? Why not sell that energy back to the energy grid and get a discount from the gym for “our work” – think about that for a moment, because this idea is not far-fetched at all. Let’s talk shall we?
In December of 2016 there was an interesting article in the Sacramento Bee titled; “New Sacramento gym turns to people power,” which stated:
“Sacramento Eco Fitness, which opened Dec. 18, is outfitted with 16 specially designed SportsArt exercise bikes that use a standard three-outlet plug to push power back into the power grid. The gym owner was looking for an entry into the fitness business – once he decided environmentally friendly was the way to go, he said, he was attracted to the SportsArt’s Eco-power equipment because it is so easy to use. ‘You could have this in your home and have it work the same way,’ he said. Most exercise bikes waste all the energy used by those riding them. The SportsArt bikes use an onboard inverter to convert that kinetic energy into usable alternating current electricity.”
This is a brilliant business model, as it makes people think they are doing something good, even if it is hard to get them to move to all LED lights at home or set their air-conditioners 3-degrees higher in the summer time. Nevertheless, every little bit helps and wasting energy is just stupid, especially when we have the technology and knowhow to convert it efficiently and repurpose it. Someone in a spinning class might generate somewhere around 200 watts, someone on a treadmill nearly the same. That’s enough to run 10 LED multi-head lights overhead at the gym (20 watts each). It’s also enough to run your smart phone.
Everybody at the gym together – well it all adds up, so you get the picture. Maybe this little business in the Sacramento Suburbs needs to be franchised across the country, as other eco-friendly entrepreneurs might just take notice. Think on it.
