Dolphin’s Dock is proudly powered by WordPress
Original Template design by dolphin ©2008.
It takes alot of energy to burn off those extra calories at the gym. Why not capture that energy and use it to power the TV? That’s what Green Microgym in Portland, Oregon is doing. For the moment the new gym is simply using it’s stationary bikes to charge batteries that are then use to power entertainment systems. The power output is small, but it’s “free,” and it’s a great idea. Imagine though if not only the bikes, but every treadmill, stair climber, elliptical, weight machine and even the aerobic room floor were plugged in and generating power. Now you’re not just keeping the TV running but perhaps the lights and maybe even at least taking the strain off the HVAC unit. Multiply that across every gym in the country and the power savings would be immense.
Now the reality is that “human-power” will likely never give us back the amount of money we spend growing and shipping the food the fuels that human-power, but really, that’s the cool part of this kind of “out of the box” thinking; it allows us to reclaim some of the energy we’ve already used. It’s the ultimate expression of the Reuse and Recycle parts of the Three R’s. There’s no question that we need to find new ways to harvest “new” energy, but once it’s harvested, why not get the most out of it by using it to it’s fullest potential? What if all the surfaces we walked on day in and day out were similar to the (uber-cool) electricity-generating dance floor at the Sustainable Dance club mentioned in the news story? What if we all had steam turbines built in over our showers? Or in our chimneys? I’ve also heard of hydraulic systems being experimented with in some cars that capture and store the energy lost in braking; it’s the same idea. There’s no way to “create” energy, however all most everything we use energy for is incredibly inefficient. Huge percentages of the energy we put into our daily tasks is wasted. Can you imagine if we could collect and re-purpose even 1% of the waste energy we produce in the activities and processes we do and use daily?