Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I have thought about electricity generation while I’m exercising a lot. I talked about it on The Gadgets Page:

• The Gadgets Page » Bicycle Powered Generator

I work out every day, whether on the treadmill, my indoor bike trainer or at the gym. Some of the workout machines at the gym power themselves with my sweat, but most of them plug into the wall and I use more electricity than I generate. What if there was a gym designed to create electricity instead of use it? That is the idea behind Notions of Expenditure.

• Notions of Expenditure

There were many drawings and ideas submitted for Notions of Expenditure, but my favorite was an anonymous posting:

It compares the electricity work performed by the inmates at the Bellevue Prison in 1822 to the energy requirements of a typical household.

It would take five and a half people working out 24 hours a day to power one house, and that doesn’t include heating or hot water. Every time Mike tells me that hooking up a generator to my exercise bike is useless, I don’t want to believe him. I need to look at this demonstration. Mike is right. I would save more energy if I just turned off the lights when I’m not using them.

Via: Videogame Workout: Harness the Energy of Exercise?