New York gym rats can now not only build muscle power, but electric power as they pedal on fitness bikes designed to light up their own health clubs.
“Electrify your workout! Later this month you will be able to shrink your waistline and your carbon footprint all at the same time,” a motivational poster says at New York Sports Club, urging clients to use “pedaling power to help create a healthier planet.”
About 20 clients pedaled furiously under the poster on stationary bicycles turning sweat equity into sweat electricity.
PHOTO: AFP
“It’s a great idea, really fun. It allows students to monitor themselves, the monitor tells you how many watts you’re creating. It’s a win-win situation,” gym instructor Rick Meadows said.
The mechanism is simple, using dynamos on the bicycles to transfer 12 volts of electricity produced by the cyclists’ pedaling to a generator that creates alternating current of 110 volts.
From there, the current helps power the gym building and reduces its bills — although not the subscriptions for members.
“I invented the system in early 2007 in Connecticut, where I live,” said Jay Whelan, 46, CEO of the Green Revolution.
The commercial debut was made last year in California.
“We began in Washington two weeks ago and here in New York,” Whelan said, adding that there are 40 customers — so far only using spin bikes.
It takes 20 people to create about 3 kilowatts in a one-hour session.
In other words, with four sessions a day, the gym creates 300 kilowatts a month, which is the same as the power needed to light a typical home for half a year.
Over a year, the gymnasts can power the equivalent of 72 homes for one month, the company said.
A small gym might even be able to run its lights entirely on human power, Whelan added.
Green Revolution employs 45 people already and is looking to expand by putting the technology into other machines, including ellipticals, cross-trainers, stepping machines and recumbent bikes, the company says.
Each individual bike generator costs US$1,300.
The dual-purpose gym session appeared to have won over clients at New York Sports Club.
“You are burning energy and at the same time you use it for something positive,” architect Richard Kronick said.
“It’s fun, challenging and efficient,” said Felicia Rubin, a housewife.
Meadows shouted encouragements while green lights indicated how many watts were being generated, so that each client can see just how much electricity his legs can create.
“I created 69 watts, but I have to stop, to change the music,” Meadows said. “Somebody created 105 watts. Competitiveness in the class encourages people to do better. And people love the fact that they are creating energy.”
“All my members want to come back to see how many watts they create,” said Jennifer Carswell, fitness service manager.
Green Revolution has several dozen clients in the US and Canada, including at schools, universities and a homeless shelter.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Wednesday said that a new chip manufacturing technology called “A16” is to enter production in the second half of 2026, setting up a showdown with longtime rival Intel over who can make the fastest chips. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of advanced computing chips and a key supplier to Nvidia and Apple, announced the news at a conference in Santa Clara, California, where TSMC executives said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) chips will likely be the first adopters of the technology rather than a smartphone maker. Analysts said that the technologies announced on
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
CALL FOR DIALOGUE: The president-elect urged Beijing to engage with Taiwan’s ‘democratically elected and legitimate government’ to promote peace President-elect William Lai (賴清德) yesterday named the new heads of security and cross-strait affairs to take office after his inauguration on May 20, including National Security Council (NSC) Secretary-General Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to be the new defense minister and former Taichung mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) as minister of foreign affairs. While Koo is to head the Ministry of National Defense and presidential aide Lin is to take over as minister of foreign affairs, Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) would be retained as the nation’s intelligence chief, continuing to serve as director-general of the National Security Bureau, Lai told a news conference in Taipei. Koo,
MANAGING DIFFERENCES: In a meeting days after the US president signed a massive foreign aid bill, Antony Blinken raised concerns with the Chinese president about Taiwan US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and senior Chinese officials, stressing the importance of “responsibly managing” the differences between the US and China as the two sides butt heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Talks between the two sides have increased over the past few months, even as differences have grown. Blinken said he raised concerns with Xi about Taiwan and the South China Sea, along with China’s support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine, as well as other issues