[ExI] generating energy with exercise equipment. was :RE: Accelerando

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of spike
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Accelerando
> 
> > ...On Behalf Of BillK
...
> > Many of us have been to the gym and wondered why the exercise 
> > equipment isn't hooked up to generate electricity and feed it back 
> > into the grid... BillK
...
> It is because the tiny amount of energy generated scarcely 
> covers the capital cost of the generator... 
> This is not to say it isn't worth doing, for it is a great 
> educational tool, a valuable way to enlighten the public... spike

To expand on this a bit, we could advertise that the value of the power
generated by one's workout would be deducted from the monthly gym fee.  A
few customers with more muscle than brain might take it as a challenge to
try to work off their entire bill with muscle generated power.  These will
find how difficult it is to generate one single copper penny's worth of
electric power.  Most moderns would give up before finishing the generation
of one cent, for it would be a hell of a workout.  Do calculate it for
yourself.  Ignore the energy cost of the HVAC system in the gym, and the
lights, and the TV running Richard Simmons videos.

A recurring gag in Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster is how the Edwardian
English nobles were so very profligate, wasting money everywhere in every
activity, but they don't even realize it.  No one they know had ever had a
real job, they had plenty of money and more coming in always from some
mysterious source, so they knew not and cared not what anything costs.

We are like the Woosters, except with energy.

spike