Gym powered by clients

It is about time somebody took advantage of all the treadmill running that goes on in a gym. The California Fitness gym in Hong Kong is co-operating with its clients to transform some of the energy expended on StairMasters and treadmills to power a trio of 27″ TVs, five 60-watt light bulbs – the equivalent of several hundred 5G iPods. Assuming the gym’s exercise machines are used 10 hours a day for a year, the accumulated effort would have generated approximately $183 worth of electricity. Of course, this is a far cry from paying off the initial $15,000 investment to set up the entire power-saving operation, but imagine if buildings were fitted with more of such ‘parasitic’ devices that harnesses the power of crowds for a greener world.