Heat creating Exercise Bike

[Unassuming]

Hi all,

I was wondering if there was such thing as a heat creating exercise bike. Made for the purpose of creating heat.

It's really cold and the power bill is going up and I am wondering if this idea is stupid or has it already been tried. I would buy one.

Any thoughts?

[mgb_phys]

If you are a racing cyclist you can probably put out about 1/3 hp for an hour - or approx 0.2kwh. That much electricity would cost you about 2c but it would take about a big-mac worth of calories.

[Unassuming]

So you are saying that even if I were a racing cyclist (which I am not), not much energy could be produced? Not enough to heat even a small room?

I'm not sure if you were saying that 2c is "2 cents".

[mgb_phys]

Electricity costs around 10cents / kWh - that is 1kW of power for an hour.
1KW is a single bar electric fire or a small fan heater.
Unfortunately you can only generate around 1/5 of a kW.

[RonL]

Electricity costs around 10cents / kWh - that is 1kW of power for an hour.
1KW is a single bar electric fire or a small fan heater.
Unfortunately you can only generate around 1/5 of a kW.

Why not build it like a heat pump and amplify the energy of 200 watts into the equivilant of 800 or more ?:smile:

Ron

[mgb_phys]

$1000 racing bike
$200 trainer
$100 cycling shoes
$50 silly little cycling shorts
$10k heat pump + digging up nearby 100m^2 of land to install pipes
Generates 1KW
or:
1KW Fan heater $10
1Kw hour electric 10 cents

ps -- Of course if you cycle enough to generate a reasonable amount of heat you will have the sort of bulging muscles to become irresistible to evo - then staying warm will not be a problem.

[kkmonte]

lol, I was waiting for the "Priceless" to come in at the end of mgb_phys's post. =)

Sounds like one of those commercials.

Ken

[RonL]

$1000 racing bike
$200 trainer
$100 cycling shoes
$50 silly little cycling shorts
$10k heat pump + digging up nearby 100m^2 of land to install pipes
Generates 1KW
or:
1KW Fan heater $10
1Kw hour electric 10 cents

ps -- Of course if you cycle enough to generate a reasonable amount of heat you will have the sort of bulging muscles to become irresistible to evo - then staying warm will not be a problem.

Hey!
What about stimulating the economy.:biggrin: