Abstract

Student-Powered Rec Center Project is to determine the amount of electricity that could be produced at the Student Rec Center at Humboldt State University using the existing Cardio-vascular stationary machines. The second part of the experiment was to compare the costs and amount of electricity that could potentially be produced at the SRC to the Team Dynamo, a stationary bicycle team that was produced by Mike Taggett of Henry Works, Inc.

Introduction

There is energy being wasted on campus that could potentially be used to offset some of HSU’s energy demands. At the Student Recreation Center students, staff and faculty members use the various types of cardiovascular work-out machines throughout the day and in the process they produce kinetic energy that could be utilized as electricity.

Project Requirements

Dick Hansis (2008) states that the mission of the course is to “learn environmental problem-solving through engagement in real-world situations by applying knowledge gained in other courses as well as new skills learned in this course.” Melissa Buehler and Dana Martin decided to create electricity at the Student Rec Center (SRC) using cardio-vascular machines that students, faculty and staff already use in order to meet their daily exercise needs.

In order to determine the best way to create electricity, an experiment was designed that determine the potential amount of electricity that could be produced by the existing equipment already installed at the SRC to the “Team Dynamo” which is a set of bikes hooked up to a re-generator that sends electricity back into the existing energy grid from the motion of the bike pedals. The amount of potential energy was compared between the two and the costs. Also, the aesthetics were taken into account and the set up process was considered in the final decision of the best way to produce electricity.

Design

1. The first step was to determine the amount of electricity that could be produced by the existing equipment. Melissa Buehler used each type of equipment at the SRC and recorded that amount of power produced, the energy spent and the time, which was measured by the cardiovascular machines. It was hoped to be determine the amount of human energy spent in order to create electrical energy.

2. The average amount of power produced by the machines was calculated.

3. The efficiency of human energy was determined by dividing the amount of energy produced by the amount of energy spent by the user.

4. The average amount of uses during the academic school year was determined. This was done by passing out surveys at the SRC.

5. The total amount of energy that could be produced by the machines was determined by taking the average amount of power created by the equipment and multiplying with the average amount of time a user spends on the equipment over an academic year time frame.

6. A comparison to the total potential amount of energy created by the existing bikes to the Team Dynamo was needed to be done. The minimum and maximum amount of power that could be created by the team of bikes was used with the average amount of time spent by a user on the equipment in order to determine the energy producing capabilities.

7. Next a comparison between the cost and energy production of retrofitting the existing bikes to the costs of the Team Dynamo was compared.

Discussion

Over the process, several Phone interviews were done between Melissa Buehler and Mike Taggett, the creator of the Team Dynamo. Mike Taggett revealed the amount of power that could be produced by the team, the price of the set and shipping of the equipment was estimated. Mike also gave the efficiency of the Team Dynamo and retrofitting existing equipment.

Several interviews between Melissa Buehler and Dave Nakamura, the director of the SRC, were done. Information on the amount electricity the SRC consumes daily was estimated by him. He also gave necessary information on the number of users on the day of the survey and over the full academic school year was given by him.

I assumed that the users of the SRC would switch their work out to the Team Dynamo if it were installed.

The cost of retro-fitting the existing bikes was done by Dana Martin using resources on the web.

Lonnie Grafman helped answer Melissa Buehler and Dana Martin’s questions during the experiment and also reviewed the excel sheet on October 27, 2008.

Conclusions

|Pedal Power Energy Production| | || Cost || Total Energy (kWh/AY) ||% of SRC electricity consumption offset| |Team Dynamo (High End Energy Production|| $ 7,900 || 1,815 ||1%| |Team Dynamo (Low End Energy Production)|| $ 7,900 || 1,296 ||1%| |Retro Fit all Cardio Machines || $ 8,725 || 1,638 ||1%| |2 Team Dynamos (average) || $ 15,800 || 3,111 ||2%| |3 Team Dynamos (average)|| $ 23,700 || 4,666 ||3%| |4 Team Dynamos (average) || $ || 31,600 || 6,222 ||4%| |5 Team Dynamos (average) || $ 39,500 || 7,777 || 5%|

It was found that 1% of the energy needs of the SRC could be produced by the exercise bikes at the SRC. Team Dynamo cost less than retrofitting the existing bikes, and was aesthetically more pleasing, we determine the best way to create energy was by purchasing the team dynamo. With each set of Team Dynamo’s that is installed, 1% more electricity could be produced.

Contact details

Melissa Buehler, Humboldt State University, Environmental Science Graduate 2008. Contact: mbuehler_20@hotmail.com <layout name="Project" />

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