When it comes to exercise, I can use every bit of motivation I can get. It seems that feeling and looking good simply aren’t enough. Now, saving a bit of money and having a greener home? That may just be the tipping point people like me need to get off our butts.
This is where the visCycle comes in handy. It’s an incredibly simple concept and set-up. You cycle on this indoor stationary bike, the energy you produce is captured by an attached generator, and the generator is plugged into your home – providing energy back onto the power grid. Provided that you have a net metering agreement with your energy provider (this varies from city to city, home to home – look into it!), the power from the visCycle is recorded as an energy credit – something that will reduce your final energy bill. If a net metering agreement isn’t possible, you can use the generator to store the energy in a battery pack. Green energy is just a sweat away!
How much energy can you produce with the visCycle? According to the website, a “vigorous workout” (your guess is as good as mine on what that is) can produce 50 watts of clean energy. That’s enough to power about five laptops or ten smartphones. Some athletes have been able to produce as much as 250 watts in a single visCycle workout.
There’s a bit of irony in thinking that the energy you produce on your exercise machine could eventually be used to cook a Pizza Pop in the microwave – but life is funny that way, isn’t it?
A visCycle can be purchased from re:source Fitness for $1199.00.
did you guys manufacture the equipment yourselves and do you just deal with bikes or are there other machines also
Hi Einstein. We don’t make these, but there’s a link at the end of the article that will take you to the folks that do.
Units of power consumption are defined in watt-hours. Your meter and electicity bill is in Kilowatt-hours. Just for clarification, did you mean for those figures mentioned of 50 watts and 250 watts to be watt-hours? Also, how long is a “single ViaCycle workout”? I wouldn’t want to be pedaling for 4 hours just to get 50 watt-hours. My electrical savings would be overshadowed by my additional food consumption.
Is this the same stationary bike they are using at the microgym dogengine.com/used-stationary-bikes.php (scroll at the bottom of the page) or is it a different one?
Kenzo, they look similar but appear a little different in some areas. I can’t say for sure. You might try contacting that gym if you want to get a definitive answer.
Awesome post. I’ve been thinking about producing some of my own power recently but through a homemade windmill using an old treadmill motor. That same idea would work to mount the motor to a bike trainer so that in the winter, when I’m riding indoors, I can generate a little juice. Thanks for the inspiration!
Here’s the vid that first inspired my windmill plans (via Makezine).
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/02/maker_workshop_wind_power_generator.html
Your comment is timely Jeff thanks! We’ll have an article on a relatively small-scale wind turbine from Honeywell on the site soon. I also flagged the video link you sent for a future article on HomeFixated. Looks like a great green DIY project! Please let me know if you wind up doing the project, I’d love to hear how it goes!