Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Back to the drawing board for free energy

Ever since Wired had the "cycling machines as energy generators" as an Artifact from the Future (can't find the link) I've been intrigued by the possibility of getting the gym goers to replace the nuclear energy plants. Oh well.

Via venturebeat:
Does all that gym peddling create usable energy? -- No. It's been bandied about by crackpots over the years: Generate electricity by tapping into all that energy people expend in the gym -- on bikes, treadmills, weight-lifting. San Ramon, Calif. company 24 Hour Fitness invested $15,000 to test this. Turns out, if all 13 machines in one Hong Kong gym were in use ten hours a day every day, it would take 82 years to generate enough electricity worth the $15,000 investment.
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1 comment:

  1. Anonymous2:48 PM

    the best idea I have hear is turning streets into kinetic energy producers so when car drove by the energy would flow into the grid. A better Idea would be to create roads that contain solar converters and produce electricity from the sun. Most roads are out in the sun all day and the cost of silicon dioxide material might be practical.

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