Can A Gym That Converts Workout Energy To Electricity Produce Meaningful Efficiency Benefits?

Several years ago I read about a children's playground that generated electricity from the movement of equipment like teeter-totters.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/04/3021621/gym-converts-workout-energy-electricity/

By Emily Atkin on December 4, 2013

There is a gym in England where crazy workouts do more than just power muscles. They also power the building.

The 42 crosstrainers, bikes, and treadmills at the Cadbury House Club in Congresbury can convert human energy generated during a workout to electricity which eventually powers the machine, Green Futures Magazine reports. The surplus energy that is not used to power the machine is channeled into the gym’s own power supply via “brushless motor” technology, which reportedly reduces energy consumption by 30 percent.

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The question has been raised as to whether the innovative idea will bring meaningful energy efficiency benefits. Dr. Tzern Toh, an electrical engineering researcher at Imperial College in London, told Green Futures that the high cost of installing the equipment may outweigh the benefits. “The price of electricity is many times less than the cost of the equipment and it may take months or years of electricity savings to recoup the investment,” he said.

But “months or years” to recoup on spending does not seem like such a long time compared to the alternative, which is to wait while energy costs soar. Recent European research has shown that energy prices there are rising at up to eight times the rate of earnings, with the area’s six biggest suppliers having increased their prices by 37 percent since October 2010. During that same period, average household earnings only rose 4 percent.

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“Some people wonder whether these systems will pay off financially for a gym, given the investment it takes to install them,” Earth Techling’s report said. “But whether they do or not might be missing the point: Each kilowatt-hour generated means one less kilowatt coming from a power plant (likely to be powered by fossil-fuels).”