I regularly do my workouts at different branches of California Fitness here in Hong Kong.
Witht the outside temperature bein high (+30C) it is nice to do your workout in a little chillier environment. As someone who is concerned about the environment, the thing that put me off is the aircons blasting, lights are on etc. Even when no people are working out in a particular section.
On the other side, my preferred work out is cardio stuff, like cross trainers, spinning classes and indoor rowers every now and then. Not a big fan of indoorrunning though. Anyway, the trick is that when you do those things you are using, actually wasting energy. As you don't do anything with it. And as others includigding Engadget, I had the thought...why not use it.
Now in the last weeks there was some maintenance going on in the central branch of California. After they were done signs were hang up with the text "powered by you", I didnt really think anything about it as it is of coz powered by me! THATS THE PURPOSE OF A WORKOUT! DUH!
Now today I decided to take a look at the big yellow box. Now to my surpise that "powered by you" had a complete different meaning.
The guys at California did some really cool stuff, by linking up a number of machines to generators! WOW Isn't that a cool things. So by working out you actually contribute electricity to the aircon and lights. With the lights they had done had done something else as well, by only switching on the majority of lights when people are working out.
Now the only are for improvement is the information provided is not really standard. Information related to CO2 savings and power contribution. As the CO2 normally is expressed in Kilograms or Tonns...they do it in liters....
Anyway, they did their homework and the conclusion is that within 2 years the savings will offset the extra energy used to manufacture the equipment.
Take a look at the next video as well:
