Chapter 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Conceptual Literature & Research Literature

Energy

“Energy can neither created nor destroyed”

Energy is an important intrinsic property of matter. Energy is present in

many forms, these are then interrelated by the fact that conversion can be made

from one form to another. From the law of conserving of energy, energy can

never be created nor destroyed but can be converted into different forms – from

solar energy to electrical or mechanical energy, from chemical energy to thermal

energy, and others1.

Human energy or human power is the energy produced by the human

body. It is one of the abundant energies available on earth. One of the resources

that exists indefinitely. Human body alone is an energy conversion machine, the

food that the body intake is converted into working energy, thermal energy and

stored fat. When a useful work is done by a person, he exerts force through a

distance; the energy used is usually the working energy. When he does forceful

work, his body needs to draw upon the energy stored in fat tissues. These fat

tissues are burned, thus losing them; this activity is commonly known to men as

exercising.
1
Faires, “Thermodynamics” 6th Ed., MACMILAN PUBLISHING CO., INC. New York, 1978
 9

Exercise

Exercise is an essential human activity that maintains healthy lifestyle. It

enhances or maintains physical fitness and the overall health and wellness of a

person. Undoubtedly positive benefits from this activity have been undisputed.

Aside from the physical benefits of exercise, emotional well-being is also

immensely affected by regular exercise. A compilation, published on October

2013 in American Journal of Preventive Medicine and authored by PhD

candidate George Mammen of University of Toronto, of 25 studies shows that

exercise prevents episodes of depression.

Exercising Machines/Equipment

Exercising machines and equipment are the products of man’s need for

physical strength. Several of these have been invented throughout the years.

This is due to the fact that as the culture evolve, men become more sedentary

because a lot of technologies emerge. With discipline and dedication one can

achieve a perfect result in using these machines and equipment.

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Human Energy and Exercising Machines & Equipment

Harvesting energy from human effort may sound very unusual for most. It

may not make sense compared to the energy produced by power plants but this

new way of producing electricity does have an impact on both man's health and

environment. Energy and health care are the issues most of the countries

worldwide faces.

These ideas led to the foundation of the Green Microgym in Portland,

Oregon, where machines like stationary bikes harvest energy during workouts.

The researchers saw that one person's work out may not be much, but 100 or

more people could contribute significantly to a facility's power needs. "By being

extremely energy-efficient and combining human power, solar and someday

wind, I believe we'll be able to be net-zero for electricity sometime this year,"

says the gym owner, Adam Boesel.

In the Netherlands, Rotterdam's new club WATT has a floor that

harnesses the energy created by the dancer's steps. Designed by a Dutch

company called the Sustainable Dance Club, the floor is based on the

piezoelectric effect, in which certain materials produce an electric current when

compressed or bent. In London, Surya, another new eco-nightclub, uses the

same principle for its dance floor, which generates 60% of the club's electricity. 2

Another gym which uses human power is the Green System by SportsArt

Fitness, sounds simple: You work out, and the electricity you generate with the

machines is fed into the grid to help the gym save on its utility bills. According to
2
http://engineering.mit.edu/ask/could-we-use-exercise-machines-energy-sources
 11

SportsArt Fitness, the system “represents a novel way to harness ‘human

power.’”

According to the researchers of these systems, the company produces a

variety of equipment, including ECO-POWR™ treadmills, which use up to 32 per

cent less energy than traditional treadmills and generate energy when used. The

company also makes elliptical trainers and upright bikes, which, when hooked

together and routed to a box, capture 75 per cent of the electricity you generate

in your workout. Boxes from several machines are then hooked together and

routed through an inverter handling up to 2,000 watt-hours per hour. For a point

of reference, 2,000 watt-hours are enough to power a clothes washer for six

hours, a microwave oven for 2.5 hours or a 27-inch flat-screen TV for 17 hours.

Another thing about this system is that it is hooked up with the Victoria,

B.C. – based Company EcoFit, whose digital technology calculates the watts

individuals generate during each workout and over time. The two companies

hope to turn the eco-points a person generates into a currency that will be

accepted at coffee shops and other retail outlets. Although currently people

measure their gym visits in terms of workout time, distance biked or even calories

burned, the paradigm looks poised to shift to watts generated, as more eco-

conscious options like the Green System become available.

The University of Toronto is testing out another system, turning stationary

bikes into free-standing power generators. Prof. Olivier Trescases and his team

hope to encourage exercise, reduce carbon fuel usage and toxic emissions, and

raise awareness. Their goal is to install a fleet of green bikes at the university’s
 12

Hart House gym and generate enough energy to light the room, thereby saving

money and reducing the facility’s carbon footprint. After that comes finding

partners to mass produce them and distribute them to gyms across Canada. The

Pedal-A-Watt Stationary Bike Power Generator has been around for 14 years.

Riders create electricity that can be used for lights or small appliances. You can

use any bicycle that’s in good shape, as the Pedal-A-Watt stand adjusts to fit any

wheel size, including children’s bikes. The average rider can produce between

125 and 300 watts. According to the manufacturer, one 20-minute workout could

run a laptop computer for more than an hour. 3

The question has been raised as to whether the innovative idea will bring

meaningful energy efficiency benefits. Dr. Tzern Toh, an electrical engineering

researcher at Imperial College in London, told Green Futures that the high cost of

installing the equipment may outweigh the benefits. “The price of electricity is

many times less than the cost of the equipment and it may take months or years

of electricity savings to recoup the investment,” he said.

But “months or years” to recoup on spending does not seem like such a

long time compared to the alternative, which is to wait while energy costs soar.

Recent European research has shown that energy prices there are rising at up to

eight times the rate of earnings, with the area’s six biggest suppliers having

increased their prices by 37 percent since October 2010. During that same

period, average household earnings only rose 4 percent.

According to Business Green, each of the ARTIS machines is capable of

generating 100 watts of electricity, meaning each could power an 18-inch

3
http://www.greenlivingonline.com/article/power-getting-fit
 13

standing fan at the highest setting, a desktop computer, a large stereo system, or

two laptop computers. However, the energy that is not being used by the

machines themselves is not currently metered, so it is too soon to tell just how

much energy is being saved by the company. Green Futures reports that the gym

does plan to eventually install tracking software that would read energy input and

output levels.

Though Cadbury House Club’s machines are based in Europe, similar

innovations are happening in the United States as well. In January, Earth

Techling reported on a company called SportsArt Fitness, a company that makes

workout machines that are designed to pipe human-generated power to the grid.

The “Green Room” gym at Tennessee Tech University currently uses the gear,

which can reportedly convert 75 percent of the power generated into usable

energy. A system of 10 machines could, depending on how hard people are

working out, produce up to 2 kilowatt-hours of electricity in an hour, SportsArt

said. The surplus energy that is not used to power the machine is channeled into

the gym’s own power supply via “brushless motor” technology, which reportedly

reduces energy consumption by 30 percent. 4

Max Donelan of the Locomotion Laboratory at Simon Fraser University in

British Columbia, in collaboration with American and Canadian researchers, is

developing an electromagnetic generator fitted to a standard knee brace. The

prototype, which Donelan unveiled last February, turns a one-minute walk into

enough current for a half-hour cellphone conversation.

4
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/04/3021621/gym-converts-workout-energy-electricity/
 14

The knee generator uses sophisticated electronics to ensure that it grabs

only excess energy. A computer measures the angle of the knee during every

step to determine when to engage and disengage the generator. In the course of

an ordinary stride, we use muscle energy both to accelerate the leg forward in an

arc and then to brake its downward motion. The generator kicks in only during

the swing phase of a footstep when the muscles are already braking, so it doesn't

take power away from your step and slow you down. The electricity then flows

through a wire to charge or power a battery or device.

At more than three pounds, the generator, called the Bionic Energy

Harvester, is cumbersome. But thanks to lighter gears and a framework made of

lightweight materials such as carbon fiber, the latest model, which is expected in

the next year or so, should weigh closer to one pound. A microcomputer will

replace a standalone computer that is wired to the unit in the current prototype.

Such a device has many possible uses. The Canadian military is partially

funding Donelan's research because soldiers carry as many as 30 pounds of

batteries for communications and navigation equipment—a load that could be

significantly lightened by an alternative energy source. Public-safety workers

such as firefighters and police could also use the technology to power handheld

equipment during emergencies. In the future, artificial limbs that require batteries

may instead be designed with Donelan's technology. And next-generation

devices could run gadgets like cellphones, global positioning systems, iPods and
 15

digital cameras. This could be particularly useful for hikers and mountain

climbers, who spend much of their time away from power sources. 5

Energy generation using exercise machines is eco-friendly. It is one way

of preserving our nature. It does not contribute to the production of greenhouse

gases which most power generation plants do when burning fossil fuels.

Self-Powered Fitness Equipment [Yildiz And Fahmy; 2004]

In past few years, electrochemical batteries and energy storage devices

have improved significantly. However, battery lifespan and reliability often limit

the abilities and range of such application of battery powered devices. Power

scavenging may enable electronic devices to be completely self-sustaining so

that battery maintenance can eventually be eliminated. One of the most

commonly used sources of human energy applications is a propelled bicycle

(fitness or regular) which can generate electricity to power peripherals such as

electronic display panels of the bicycle. The form of ambient energy source was

the waste mechanical energy from fitness exercise bicycles which was converted

to electrical energy and stored in battery banks for use in the system. An

appropriate energy harvesting and storage system was built and demonstrated to

investigate reliability of the fitness bicycle as an ambient energy source.

Human kinetic energy can be extracted and transferred to small scale

power applications in several different ways such as pedaling bicycles and hand-

crank tools. By converting mechanical energy to electrical energy, not only does
5
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2009-01/harvesting-energy-humans?nopaging=1
 16

the display get powered but also different applications such as a small radio, or

digital embedded heartbeat reader can also be powered. The amount of

electrical power that can be produced by the generator is determined by the

energy available to turn the pedals. The stronger the human power, the more

electrical power which can be generated and stored. The produced DC power

can also be used for different applications, including AC appliances by using a

DC-AC inverter connected to a storage unit for a stable AC output. If an average

person is expected to produce sustainable 100-1500 watts, charging a battery or

capacitor with an average 50mA current is enough to power a low power

electronic device. The following work investigated the feasibility of an energy

harvesting device that generates energy from a fitness bicycle as an ambient

energy source during a workout routine of a person.

The result and data analysis reported presents a number of remarkable

points on the use and importance of energy harvesting and battery charging

circuit designs to capture energy from ambient energy sources through human

power. The goal was to study the factors which are needed in order to determine

the overall feasibility of an energy harvesting and generation system that

converted mechanical human energy dissipated by a fitness exercise bicycle into

storable energy. This research relied on a person using the exercise bicycle to

generate power from a normal workout routine to power the display and a 40mW

small radio. The development of fast charging batteries will make the low power

energy harvesting systems more powerful in the near future and may completely
 17

replace conventional batteries by fast charging rechargeable batteries and super

capacitors.

Gyms to Convert Human Energy into Electricity for the Grid [Burgess:

2012]

Energy is used to run everything. Anything that moves or performs some

function does so via the use of energy. Energy is never destroyed, but during

certain processes it can be converted into different types of energy. Heat energy

from the sun is converted into electricity in solar panels.

Potential energy in coal is converted into heat energy when burnt, which in

turn is turned into electricity. Potential energy in food is turned into energy to

power the human body when eaten. Within reason energy can be converted form

one form to another with relative ease.

In the gym humans use lots of energy to move weights and exercise. The

Great Outdoor Gym Company (TGO) has created the first outdoor gym which

converts the energy exerted by people during exercise into electricity.

At the Green Heart gym in Hull, England, the electricity generated on the

cross trainer and exercise bikes are used to power the LED lighting for the site,

but TGO’s creative director said that they are working with the National Housing

Federation to find sites where the gyms could provide the electricity to power

local buildings, or just connect to the local grid.

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According to TGO, each piece of equipment has the potential to produce

between 50W and 400W, although this clearly depends on the physical ability of

the person using the machine at the time, and the average power production is

more likely to be about 100W for those people who are not Olympic athletes.

Filipino Teen Creates Shoes That Can Charge a Phone by Walking [Aversa:

2014]

Science has developed shoes that can charge your phone or any USB-

powered device by simply walking. Now Angelo is creating a new way to

generate power. He placed two pairs of physio-electric discs on the insole of

each shoe. The discs produce energy when any type of pressure is placed on

them. That energy is then channeled to a USB port, which an electronic device

can plug in to. He have a pair (of physio-electric discs) mounted back-to-back.

When you make back-to-back pairs, you're able to harvest twice the power. Even

without the extra discs, Angelo's experiments with the device showed that a full

battery charge could be obtained by jogging continuously for eight hours. In a

separate test, the teenager gained a 10-minute phone charge by playing

basketball for two straight hours.

Angelo Casimiro submitted his invention to the Google Science Fair 2014.

While the invention is impressive, especially because of Angelo's age, it is not

the first of its kind. Hahna Alexander and Matt Stanton of Carnegie Mellon

University have been working on SolePower since 2012. 6

6
https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/filipino-teen-creates-shoes-that-can-charge-a-phone-by-
walking-181805265.htm