Hannah Menchu - New gym turns workouts into watts

A new fitness center, situated in a city park in Hull, northeast England, not only provides a facility for local residents to get fit but also generates electricity every time the equipment is used.  The creative director of The Great Outdoor Gym Company, Georgie Delaney, says the community in Hull has generated over 40,000 watts hours of electricity so far.  Currently the power generated has been used for the gyms lights, but it is hoped that one day surplus energy will be able to be added to the national grid and reduce electricity bills.

The company has already installed more than 350 gyms in public places around the UK -- paid for by local councils and free of charge to use for local residents -- but this is their first to convert human energy into electricity.

The outdoor gym is not cheap.  The prototype in Hull costs around $100,000 to install.  Developers are working on plans for both a cheaper model to charge mobile phones and larger gym to feed power back to the grid.

I think this is really cool.  It is a great use of power and hopefully, people are taking advantage of the free gym and taking better care of themselves by exercising.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/27/world/europe/gym-workout-watts-electricity/index.html