College Gym Extracts Energy From People Using Cardio Machines: Should More Gyms Do the Same?
SodaHead Living
2011/09/04 15:29:15
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For students at Montana State University, going to the gym is no longer just about staying in shape. Now it's an opportunity to help the environment.
MSU has installed a new system, called Re-Rev, in their Marga Hosaeus Fitness Center. Twelve machines now convert the kinetic energy from people exercising into electricity.
The electricity is channeled directly back into the facility, cutting down on how much outside energy is needed to power the building.
"We're trying to build a sustainable community," said Student Body President Blake Bjornson.
The average exerciser produces enough electricity in 30 minutes to power a laptop computer for one hour, and the faster you go the more energy you produce.
"I think it's a great way we can supply energy to our gym," said MSU Student Leah Brown. "It's great for our environment and going green and helping out as much as we can."
"It's kind of like mice on a wheel," said MSU Student Hillary Begger. "But it's definitely an incentive to come work out."
"This is a good visual representation of what we're trying to build at MSU," added Bjornson.
What do you think? Should more gyms extract energy from people using cardio machines?
MSU has installed a new system, called Re-Rev, in their Marga Hosaeus Fitness Center. Twelve machines now convert the kinetic energy from people exercising into electricity.
The electricity is channeled directly back into the facility, cutting down on how much outside energy is needed to power the building.
"We're trying to build a sustainable community," said Student Body President Blake Bjornson.
The average exerciser produces enough electricity in 30 minutes to power a laptop computer for one hour, and the faster you go the more energy you produce.
"I think it's a great way we can supply energy to our gym," said MSU Student Leah Brown. "It's great for our environment and going green and helping out as much as we can."
"It's kind of like mice on a wheel," said MSU Student Hillary Begger. "But it's definitely an incentive to come work out."
"This is a good visual representation of what we're trying to build at MSU," added Bjornson.
What do you think? Should more gyms extract energy from people using cardio machines?
Read More: http://www.ktvq.com/news/msu-student-gym-uses-ener...
Top Opinion
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Chloey Hamer 2011/09/04 20:55:55Yes
+7then the unfit people will have no choice but to work out every now and then or they are going to lose their TV time.
If you lety these meaningless things destract you then you got your heads buried in the sand and enturn your ass is going to get burned.
yeah, yeah, I know, Green is a good thing, and I'm a maaaaroooon, yeah maroon < s >
Just what one would expect from a "progressive" institution like State colleges have generally become: going backward, technologically, to a day when slaves and prisoners were compelled to walk treadmills as either labor for their masters or for punishment. As the South here in the US was already learning at the time Northern industrialists decided to push to punish them for the power King Cotton had brought them, slave labor is inefficient; mechanical means of production and processing were already eroding slavery.
Today, we possess the technical means and resources to produce energy in abundance without resorting to making humans into draft animals (only politicians, led by those who wish to utterly destroy our economy stand in the way), so /naturally/ a college is leading the way to the past. Luddites.
Unless the people on the exercise equipment are being compensated for their efforts, then it's immoral and unethical for others to harvest their labors, and that some students are brainwashed into thinking this is a good thing is appalling. The cited students in this article are already overpaying to receive substandard services, more than likely, from a...
Just what one would expect from a "progressive" institution like State colleges have generally become: going backward, technologically, to a day when slaves and prisoners were compelled to walk treadmills as either labor for their masters or for punishment. As the South here in the US was already learning at the time Northern industrialists decided to push to punish them for the power King Cotton had brought them, slave labor is inefficient; mechanical means of production and processing were already eroding slavery.
Today, we possess the technical means and resources to produce energy in abundance without resorting to making humans into draft animals (only politicians, led by those who wish to utterly destroy our economy stand in the way), so /naturally/ a college is leading the way to the past. Luddites.
Unless the people on the exercise equipment are being compensated for their efforts, then it's immoral and unethical for others to harvest their labors, and that some students are brainwashed into thinking this is a good thing is appalling. The cited students in this article are already overpaying to receive substandard services, more than likely, from an educational institution bubble (I want to say "scam") that's about to burst almost as impressively as the mortgage/real estate bubble did (google "literacy college students" "higher education bubble" etc.), and being ripped off to provide free energy on top of that is disgusting.
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That's hilarious. I stayed in shape while in college by working. For pay. Paying an institution for the "privilege" of providing it with power is stupid. If they're not getting paid for it, but instead are paying to do it (either now or by placing themselves in hock for years with college loans for an "education" that teaches them so little that almost 70% of 'em graduate as illiterates), then I guess they deserve being scammed. "A sucker born every minute" seems to be the model that Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries seem to operate by nowadays, and it's working as more and more people who are obviopusly unfit for academia mortgage years of their lives away for increasingly worthless certifications that they are suckers.
I'm glad you are so enthusiastic in your support of scamming students this way. At least it makes it clear what your ethics are.
I think I should rethink the career change, a couple of years and everything will be far from fosil fuels.
But as with all things that go green, usually price is hiked up. If it causes already high gym membership prices to go through the roof, then it's not worth it.
Because then you will have less people going to the gym, more gyms closing, more equipment going to waste (that took lots of energy to build in the first place)...
Everything is cyclical.
However, if it can work in the majority of gyms in an area [Montana, then the 4 surrounding states, then the rest of the US, then maybe Canada or a European country who'd be willing to try it], then it is definitely worth trying.