Green energy, ReRev and other projects

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Rx7man
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OK, let me start of with the disclaimer that I'm all for green energy.., and that this is a little bit of a rant from a thorn in my side.

So.. with that out of the way, I have to really doubt the validity of a lot of these green energy projects...The one that caught my eye in particular was ReRev, It is a project where they're gathering the energy generated in gyms and feeding it into the grid.

Has anyone ever done the math on the energy expenditure vs return on this project? I mean from start to finish, that is mining and refining the minerals required to build the hardware, Shipping it to China and then back again (probably), and then finally installing it.
Besides the cost which I'm sure is a negative return on investment, I'd suspect that unless you keep your gym full of Lance Armstrongs on steroids you'll never recoup the energy expended in the project.

Along with that come all the appliances, etc that are "energy saving"... What good are energy saving appliance if we just keep amassing more appliances, and specifically more (often) useless gizmos that need batteries?

Closer to home for me since I'm a farmer, is the ludicrous idea of rooftop gardens feeding the new green world... Most of these gardens will grow some lettuce and tomatoes, but none of them will ever provide any form of real nutrition.

Thoughts?
 
Engineering news on Phys.org
It seems to be a bit of a novelty at the moment.

Manufacturers vary in the ways they communicate how much energy their people-powered equipment is capable of producing. For example, PlugOut Fitness says typical users will be able to generate between 50 and 150 watts during a single workout - enough to power a cell phone for a week. By contrast, an elliptical machine in regular use at a commercial facility using ReRev technology generates an estimated one kilowatt-hour of electricity every two days; that's the same amount of power it takes to run a laptop for 24 hours or a vacuum cleaner for 45 minutes.

Is ReRev solving any great problem? Absolutely not. But it's starting a discussion."

http://www.athleticbusiness.com/fit...facilities-harness-user-generated-energy.html

Right now they seem to be used to go back into the energy use of the the gym. This is why we require accepted sources when a member makes a claim as you did.
 
Rx7man said:
OK, let me start of with the disclaimer that I'm all for green energy.., and that this is a little bit of a rant from a thorn in my side.

So.. with that out of the way, I have to really doubt the validity of a lot of these green energy projects...The one that caught my eye in particular was ReRev, It is a project where they're gathering the energy generated in gyms and feeding it into the grid.

Has anyone ever done the math on the energy expenditure vs return on this project? I mean from start to finish, that is mining and refining the minerals required to build the hardware, Shipping it to China and then back again (probably), and then finally installing it.
Besides the cost which I'm sure is a negative return on investment, I'd suspect that unless you keep your gym full of Lance Armstrongs on steroids you'll never recoup the energy expended in the project.

Along with that come all the appliances, etc that are "energy saving"... What good are energy saving appliance if we just keep amassing more appliances, and specifically more (often) useless gizmos that need batteries?

Closer to home for me since I'm a farmer, is the ludicrous idea of rooftop gardens feeding the new green world... Most of these gardens will grow some lettuce and tomatoes, but none of them will ever provide any form of real nutrition.

Thoughts?
Not a bad looking rant.

You omitted to mention in your rant, the yearly "turning off all the lights in the cities" day to save energy, whatever its called and whenever it is.
I forget the details, because, like you, not that I am not green supportive, but instead because it is a typical exercise in what is wrong in the green movement, ranging from who can score the most talking points to just plain stupidity and hypocrisy.

Case in point:
Turn off the lights in your city for a day - yeaah we are green.
Light up your city bridge year round to make it look pretty. Yeeah we are still green because only LED lights are used.