Gym attendance by the average person wastes energy in multiple ways. Fuel is required to drive to the gym, and the gym machines sometimes require electricity. Imagine if you could go to a gym where much of the fuel and electricity usage mentioned above could be offset while exercising on the machines.
In Bristol, you can do that at the Cadbury House Gym in Congresbury. To make that possible, the gym recently spent £600,000 on 42 new pieces of ARTIS Technogym devices such as cross trainers, bikes, and vario’ machines.
These machines generate electricity to directly power the displays of the gym machines when people start to run/pedal on them. They supply surplus electricity generated to the building. So these machines don’t use fossil fuels and then offset that by supplying clean energy to the grid (not that that is a bad thing) — they generate their own electricity in the first place.
According to Business Green, each machine generates about 100 watts of power, which could power an 18″ standing fan at the highest setting, a full desktop computer system, a large bookshelf stereo system, or a minimum of two laptop computers.
This energy-efficiency effort doesn’t only consist of the human-powered generators, but the treadmills consume 30% less energy as well due to the use of more efficient brushless motors and reduced friction, which, according to Jason Eaton (the general manager of the gym), is better for the users and the company.
“This is the very latest in health club technology in terms of design, sustainability, connectivity and biomechanical excellence,” he added. “On top of that we’re reducing the level of energy needed to power the club, which is great for the environment.”
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