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Sunday, September 28, 2008

Sweat Equity

[via ABCNews, h/t James Hughes]
Launched last week, [Adam Boesel's] "human-powered" gym [Green Microgym in Portland] is one of few fitness centers in the world that runs on power generated by people working out... As members pedal on stationary bicycles, a small motor connected to the stations charges batteries that power the gym's television and stereo system… "Our goal is to someday create 100 percent of the electricity we use in the gym," Boesel said.

I've often wondered -- idly, I might add -- whether I could hook up a stationary bike in front of that big screen teevee that gives me so much environmentally unsustainable pleasure these days and feed it some of the extra energy it gorges on while stalling the accumulation of bellyflab that seems to attend those guilty pleasures (and considering some of the shows I watch on that teevee the pleasures are questionable in more ways than one). For now, it appears that the tradeoffs are a bit humbling:
"[A] person can make about a penny's worth of electricity an hour. So it's not a lot," said Michael Tagget, president of Henry Works, adding that on his or her own, an individual can create 50 to 100 watts of electricity. "But if 20, 30, 40 people are doing that in a gym, they can [create] all the electricity for entertainment systems. It's better than nothing and the feeling of accomplishing something is worthwhile[.]"

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