Jun
4
Julie R asked:
Seems like there should be a way to generate/ harness the energy from everybody running on treadmills in healthclubs, even at home I guess- seems like since they’re working so hard anyway- the energy should be put to good use. Could it work?
Seems like there should be a way to generate/ harness the energy from everybody running on treadmills in healthclubs, even at home I guess- seems like since they’re working so hard anyway- the energy should be put to good use. Could it work?
you cannot harness the energy from a treadmill, the person would have to actually push the treads themselves to create any energy.
also if there was a way to harness the energy it would be so small it would hardly power up a handheld calculator
i know that some of you guys think that this is a good idea but you just dont know how much it takes to create a sustainable power source
its a good idea but right now its just wishful thinking
it requires power to move the treads the create the environment for people to run on treadmills but it requires alot of power to make any sort of diffenence.
I have no answer, but I really like your thinking on this… not just for that application, but in general.
Why not? Great idea!
wow..i never thought of that…
thats a really good idea though…
~$tarr
That is an awesome idea. I have never thought of that. I’m sure it could work somehow.
Excellent idea!
It’s more plausible for exercise bikes, and at my gym they are all self powered (meaning that exercise bike runs on the power you produce to measure pulse, do your program, etc.).
However, in Hong Kong, they do have a gym that runs on Human Power. It was a news story a while ago.
The treadmills are powered by electricity so the treads roll forward, if you removed the power source and attached generators and required runners to use even more energy to use the treadmills then a significant amount of energy could possibly be produced.
Yes it could and I came up with this idea a few years back and when I approached a health club chain on the benefits to this and they clean energy that could create for themselves. I was told it would cost them too much to do this and they would not see any benefit to this plus they would have to offer reduced rates to their members..
I still think this is a very good idea.
They don’t because of cost, probably. The treadmill would have to be redesigned so the runner/walker could push the belt instead of a motor. They do make some treadmills that do not require power. Exercise bikes could easily be linked to generators too, but at cost. And lets not forget those machines. In theory, they too could generate electricity. if the belts were attached to gears that turned cogs that spun a magnet around wire, energy could be produced. Heck a hamster on a wheel could probably generate enough to light up an led bulb. Energy is everywhere. It just costs money to capture it.
because people that go to gyms are usually not environmentally awared.
The treadmills require energy to run. They are not “people-driven”. It would be easier for them to harvest the energy from the stationary bicycles.
Hi. Most treadmills use power to make them move. The people just keep up. (Or in my case, try to.)
Theoretically it could work, but that’s only if everyone were to use treadmills that require no electricity to run. If you’ve ever been on one of those so-called treadmills that consist of a track stretched between two rollers, you’d know that they are junk. Plain and simple if you want a good challenging work-out, then you need electricity to regulate the resistance and speed and sometimes the slope of the track.
If someone could come up with a treadmill that uses no electricity but you can still vary the resistance and slope and then figure out a way to hook it up to a generator or some other type of energy storage unit, then yes your idea would be possible. Hey, how about you design something like this and get a patent for it and make a billion dollar industry of it. No joke, you really could make some big moola from that idea if you could figure out how to make it all work.
im pretty sure they could
like how the hamsters do it
That’s the best idea I’ve ever seen on Yahoo answers and
in order to work, the club itself would have to be retrofitted
with equipment to convert. If they were leasing, this would
not be possible without permission from the landlord. It
would have to be privately owned. I had a funny picture of
everyone on my block having to get on their treadmills for
an hour to boil water or take a shower. We’de all be
really thin and really clean.
Yes, in theory it could work, but I’m sure that most health clubs wouldn’t think about it probably because of economical reasons. Considering that solar power is the purest form of energy it is the most expensive also. Creating and putting into use some thing like a energy-generating treadmill will be just as (or more) expensive. Keep on dreamin’.
The problem is that gym treadmills, I presume you mean the ones with a flat moving surface to run on, always require electric power to move the endless belt. Unfortunately, not enough push could be produced by a ‘runner’ to move the belt without it being powered.
Remember that the belt rides on a flat surface underneath and is not freely suspended just at the ends. The weight of the runner pressing down acts as a brake to prevent momentum. There is also a lot of inertia to overcome just to get it started.
Exercise bicycles and rowing machines which could be expected to produce power, would require not just modification to fit generators but associated control gear, wiring and safe power storage. Then the question has to be, ‘would the power produced be more environmentally practical than the impact of producing/fitting the equipment which would stand idle if unused?’
Nevertheless, it is an interesting question that shows both observation and thought.
That’s not going to work. First of all, a treadmill actually needs power or energy to turn on the treadmill to work. So really, people on treadmills dont produce any extra energy. Its not the best source of energy from gyms and fitness clubs because they would have to pay those people to produce energy. That’s why its better if we rely energy from solar power or wind power. Its not expensive in the long run and nature gives way more energy than off of people.
Of course it could work. Almost anything you can dream of is possible.
I especially like the hamster wheel idea, it could work like a water wheel only instead of a river turning it, we use joggers.
Thank you for asking.
Good idea but all the health clubs care about is their money and honestly what if only (ex.) wednesday they only had one patient that used the treadmill? Then where would they get the rest of their energy But VERY good question u get a star!
The people would actually have to work. Tread mills run themselves we just run faster to keep up.
I have had a similar thought about 2yr olds. If we could harness all that energy we could probably run small cities.
I don’t think you can since the energy people use is from the food they eat. When they exercise the energy is converted to heat, which is a lower quality energy and so can do little work.
You could get energy from the people on treadmills and it sounds like a good idea on paper, but let’s be real.
At anytime of the day, a gym may only have so many people on treadmills. If there’s only 7 people on the treadmills while everyone else is weight lifting, you be working out in the dark, or at least a very poorly lit room. Also, people get tired, as soon as someone stops for a water break you lose power! Basically, the people working at that gym need more trustworthy sources of power, and people on treadmills aren’t one of them. They’ll just have to stick to generators like the rest of us.
I think about that all the time!! It seems like such a waste of energy to have everyone running their asses off and lifting weights, etc, for no reason.
How hard could it possibly be to make those connected to harvest energy? I think it is definitely possible, but the right company has to decide they like the idea.
that could be a great way to harness a new easy and clean type of energy, you could put them on a contraption like a pin wheel that a hamster would run on and put a kind of motor or a generator on one side of it, and even better you could charge the public to use it so your getting paid and helping society at the same time, and your getting a free light bill. i think the a good idea….
I think all health clubs should do that and one day they will but for now we just have to wait
I was thinking that just the other way. Surely they could at least capture enough energuy to power the gym itself?
No, it can’t work because a treadmill USES energy in order to run. With a bicycle, however, it COULD work because the person using the bike is not needed energy other than their own movement to make it work. I have seen it on some science show, but I can’t remember what right now.