Electricity-Generating Exercise Bikes

Many people have exercise bikes in their home or at their gym.

I haven’t taken the time to figure out how much energy could actually be generated, but there are lots of ideas about generating electricity from stationary bikes (which people are using anyway).

Generally speaking (very generally), one hour of good bike riding can generate enough electricity to power 1 50 watt light bulb for 8 hours.

I’ve collected some of the ideas and articles here about how these work in the hopes that someone will take the information and turn it into something for themselves and/or others.

Crowne Plaza Copenhagen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/apr/14/hotel-with-electricity-generating-exercise-bikes

From next Monday, those staying at the 366-room Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers will be encouraged to head down to the gym to spend time on its new fleet of electricity-generating exercise bikes. The bikes have iPhones mounted on the handlebars which monitor how much power is being produced and fed into the mains supply of the hotel.

Critics might argue that even those who cycle for a full hour will be making a rather token contribution to the energy use of a huge city hotel – 100 watt hours of energy is only enough to light a single 100 watt bulb for one hour. However the hotel counters that it wanted the target to be “achievable” so as many people as possible take part.

This article talks about the Pedal-A-Watt.
http://www.gizmag.com/the-pedal-a-watt-stationary-bike-power-generator-create-energy-and-get-fit/13433/

Here’s a video overview of the Pedal-A-Watt idea:

Here’s the Pedal-A-Watt concept in action:

Here’s a link to Pedal-A-Watt

Here’s a $12 Generator built from scrap parts:

(The YouTube comments suggest he should add a blocking diode to make sure the energy flows one way only. Makes sense. Also, here’s the http://ecorenovator.org/forum/appliances-gadgets/325-building-pedal-power-bicycle-12-volt-generator-ghetto-style.htmlforum where they are discussing this project.)

Here’s an Amazon product that you can buy to generate power from your bike via a dynamo:

Cylec:

The company that makes the exercise bikes featured in this video:
http://www.cylec.com/english/main.html

This is by no means comprehensive. If you know of anything related to stationary bikes that generate electricity, please share it in the comments below.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *