Inhabitat » Energy-Generating Green Microgym in Seattle by Adam Boesel

February 6, 2008

Energy-Generating Green Microgym in Seattle by Adam Boesel

by Tylene Levesque

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A human-powered energy-generating gym like Hong Kong’s is now taking shape in Seattle, turning human sweat into usable electric energy. By connecting spinning bikes to wind-generator motors, clients at Adam Boesel’s green microgym can generate enough electricity to power the gym’s music system or run their own personal DVD player.

“Clients pedal more than enough to keep the tunes playing and, in fact, would be able to run the lights as well, if we could figure out a way to transfer the energy from the bikes to the circuit box,” says Boesel. We love the grassroots nature of the project — Adam’s Green Microgym is his personal training studio, out of which he runs individual training programs.

By generating electricity and conserving space and energy, Total Body Turnaround is laying the groundwork to build a gym would use solar and pedal electricity exclusivity. Now that’s good health, for bodies and the environment.

+ Adam Boesel’s Green Microgym

Via SeattlePi

14 Responses to “Energy-Generating Green Microgym in Seattle by Adam Boesel”

Karin Lidman Says:

February 6th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

Finaly! I’ve been thinking about this kind of gym for some years now. I hope to see something like this in Sweden soon!

BradEverson67 Says:

February 7th, 2008 at 2:10 am

Good Idea where did you get the equipment and how much would love to do the same a green gym would make sum buck in todays word People will pay more and probly be apt to ride the bikes more

scott Says:

February 7th, 2008 at 3:10 am

If you connect the generators to a charge controller and batteries, as you would in a Photo-Voltaic installation, you can store the energy, and either use an inverter to grid-tie the system, or go really green and use high intensity LED lighting running directly off the low volatage DC you are storing. Enjoy!

Deuxmillehuit Says:

February 7th, 2008 at 5:02 am

Now imagine a measure of the eletricity produced on a big lightboard on the front of the gym to advertise the people how much electricity is produced in this gym (in kW/h) for example) ! Nice.
And more sofisticated, smaller lightboards within the gym in the different gym classes to stimulate the trainers (pedals vs indoor rower) ! A good competition to produce more electricity than others :-)
The idea is to add statististcs (personal and grouped) to the electricity produced in a manner of distributed computing (see example here: http://boincstats.com/stats/project_graph.php?pr=bo). The electricity produced could be converted into points in fonction of the difficulty to produce the electricity by the different device (pedal, indoor rower,…) to be comparable. Imagine you log yourself on the indoor rower, then produce x points. Then you log on the pedal and produce y points. At the end of the year you could compare your points with others :-) And all the statistics should be available on internet to make compariasons with other gym.
A good advert for the gym too :-)

Jessica Says:

February 7th, 2008 at 6:30 am

Awesome, I have been dreaming of something like this. I decided not too long ago that one of my life’s goals would be to build one. Maybe someone has made it easier now. :)

psychic readings Says:

February 7th, 2008 at 11:13 am

thanks for the information! sounds good

Green Says:

February 7th, 2008 at 11:45 am

Just think of all the carbon dioxide that will be produced during a work out. How does that compare to a carbon fired gerating plant on a per KW basis?

Chris Says:

February 7th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

@Green, the idea that human-powered energy could become a significant contributor to the power grid is ludicrous. The point is that people would be working out anyway. Currently, that energy is wasted. Even if the amount of energy saved is trivial, it has the added effect of raising awareness about energy use. “Whew, I only produced 75 Watt/hours? Man, am I going to remember to turn off the lights!”

James Says:

February 7th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

I think this is a good idea and I hope it will catch on, but I do want to play devil’s advocate. The best way to get some exercise and help the environment at the same time is too ride a bike instead of drive a car. The idea of driving to a gym to then generate power on a bike seems a bit counterproductive.

liesbeth Says:

February 8th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

we already did so, cycling at home, to have light!
in World war Two, in the Netherlands, Groningen.
urged by the circumstances!
They were absolutely worse than nowadays ‘circumstances!
just to let you know!
Bye!

Mark C. Says:

February 22nd, 2008 at 1:14 pm

This “Invention” has been done probably hundreds of times by many different people.
it is quite obvious.
and many people have adapted Generators, DC motors to act as generators and even
electrical bikes with built-in motor in the rear axle.

since this bikes still have pedals; it is simply a matter of pedaling with the rear wheel allowed to spin off the ground. the axle motor generates electricity.
a few wiring mods. and rectifiers, etc. Viola! Power!

Leo Mac Ender Says:

March 1st, 2008 at 1:32 pm

Excellent, we like to buy severals of this, where?
Leo Mac Ender
lemak@telia.com

ryansomma.com » Blog Archive » Science Etcetera Venusday, 20080208 Says:

March 29th, 2008 at 11:25 pm

[…] can also harness the power of jocks, with a Green Gym that Harness Workout Power. Remember that football player who used to beat you up in the locker room? Imagine him on a giant […]

giannigianni Says:

June 26th, 2008 at 3:58 am

Excellent. When I am on a machine it indicates that I have produce some 100 W, that means 5-8 energy saving light bulbs during that hour, right? How can recuperate that? I immagine a gym having already photovoltaic and that being supplmentary and sharing some of the devices generating power. How?

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