Saturday, November 13, 2010
Human Power
Throughout this whole semester we've talked about different ways of producing energy. From solar power, to wind power, to biomass, etc. but i don't think we've talked about how humans themselves can solve this energy problem. I don't mean walking or biking to work to save gas and energy. Nor am i talking about unplugging your electronics to reduce "vampire power." I am talking about actually using humans as an energy source! Depending on what you're doing you generate different amounts of electricity. Maybe we can't power an army of robots like on the matrix but we can power some devices. Perhaps using humans as batteries is too radical of an idea. but what about paying people to sit on a bike and pedal to generate electricity? These are just some ideas I've been thinking of. what do y'all think?
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A person pays for their gym membership, which is owned by some government sponsored chain of gyms to make it possible to have the equipment, and after their workout on expensive electricity generating machines they get a reduced price based on the watts they produced after their workout.- Something like this seems more feasible than someone buying expensive equipment themselves to generate electricity manually.
ReplyDeleteP.S.- The Matrix way of using people as batteries from birth to death, even after death, was horrible but incredibly effective.
Yeah i think that would be a good idea, to make machines that we work out in make electricity. A lot of people go in and out of a gym, so why not set up the machines there? Maybe it might cost more to install the new machines than it is keeping the ones the gym has already. Nonetheless, this a great idea that needs to be looked at more in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteP.S.- The Matrix is an awesome movie
I've always loved the idea of using the classic bicycle setup to generate power for a TV or other appliance. But the idea listed above sounds even better. I think you could run into problems in terms of where to put the power that is generated. Would you store it, or use it right away? Would it stay within the gym, or go to the grid? With all of these questions comes added on costs for these machines, which would raise membership costs and deter people from joining...ect. I'm sure there is a good way to do this for a reasonable cost, I'm just thinking out loud. Again, I think this idea is pretty cool. Maybe you should think about mentioning it to a gym or two to see what they think.
ReplyDeleteP.S.-What if we're all in the Matrix right now? Then none of this would be real...
With current electricity prices around 10 cents per kilowatt hour, I certainly don't think you can pay anyone to pedal the bike. An elite cyclist would take about 3 hours to produce a kilowatt hour; meaning you would have to pay them about 4 cents an hour to be competitive with the rest of the market. The idea may have some application in at least supplementing power to a gym as others have mentioned in their comments. Having a semi renewable gym would probably attract customers. But ultimately people are powered by food, which takes energy to make; and they emit CO2.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jake on this idea, even though the idea of using gyms is quite creative and shows utilization of mechanical energy that is "wasted". While the idea of using gyms to provide electricity might be overly radical, the idea of powering the gym itself might be more feasible. Hooking up bikes, ellipticals, weight machines, etc, would take a lot of money to invest, and would it be cost effective? Gyms would have to pay to upgrade their equipment and this cost would be directly responsible for raises in membership fees. Even though the gym is saving a little money with the electricity produced, it isn't significant enough to make a difference. Would people be willing to pay more money just to feel like they made a slight difference?
ReplyDeleteThe practicality of retrofitting elliptical machines so they can generate electricity lies not in the actual electricity created, but rather in the awareness it raises. When someone works out on one of these machines, they get a real life example of how much energy it takes to power that light they left on when they left the house. If one light was left on for an eight hour work day, around two hours of exercise would be needed to create an equal amount of energy. When someone goes to workout and ends up understanding how much physical work it takes to power the things we take for granted every day, the result is a much more energy conscious individual. Whether they take action on this new knowledge depends on the person, but it would be hard to pry the understanding of this energy consumption from their noggin after seeing the work themselves.
ReplyDelete