Obesity. Renewable energy. Want to solve them both? Human generated power.
I'm picturing a stationary bike with a battery charging rig attached to it. The removable battery packs--picture a power strip or a shoebox sized block--have electric sockets in them, and you can plug small home appliances into the battery packs instead of into the wall. It's modular. It's scalable. And it's portable.
Think small.
Think of all those small appliances you have on your kitchen counter: toaster, coffee pot, blender. Now imagine instead of plugging them into the wall for power, you plug them into a battery pack charged by the exercise you did. Ride the stationary bike on Sunday, that generates and stores energy to make toast and coffee all week (all month?) off the grid. Charge your cell phone, camera, mp3 player and get a workout too.
How about TV?
Don't plug the TV into the wall. Plug it into a battery pack.
This is really where we hit the obesity thing and the green energy thing all at once. If you want to watch TV, you're going to have to exercise to charge the battery pack for the TV. Genius...if I do say so myself. I predict this will reduce TV watching, increase exercising, and generate green energy with a comparatively low cost to adopt.
This is about charging batteries, so you don't have to exercise now to watch TV now like a gerbil in a wheel. You can exercise now to have power later.
You can stay on the grid.
Haven't exercised for a while? Get to it! Or, just plug your appliances back into the wall. You're not disconnecting from your electric utility company after all. You're just supplementing their coal power or nuclear power with localized human power.
This energy is portable. Use it around the home or take it with you. Power a mini fridge on your camping trip. Power a TV or speakers at a tailgate party. Charge your cell phone on your boat.
Maybe I'll open a fitness club and call it The Power Plant. "Green exercisers" will generate power and sell it. Can you imagine getting paid to exercise? Maybe we'll solve the unemployment problem too: Exercise for Cash. Maybe we'll pay our kids allowance based on how much energy they generate. This will start a revolution. Small remote villages will be able to generate their own power. I'll win a Nobel Prize. The possibilities (and my wild imagination) are endless.
So, wise web surfers and human energy generators, how do I get this off the ground?
