What is farm-4-energy doing
We have built several pieces exercise equipment or peripheral equipment that produces AC or DC electrical power when exercising. This power is used to charge batteries and feed power into our home power grid. During a workout, this production of electrical power replaces a workouts resistance that is traditionally provided by weights or the friction of pads on a spinning wheel.
To date, we can produce electricity from:
• Mountain bikes set on a stand
• Multi-function weight bench (Platinum Marcy home gym)
• Stationary exercise bike
• Elliptical
The underlying goal of this work is to build and sell equipment to residential and commercial consumers who would like to get a bit more out of individual or group workouts. We also would like to arrive at a position where we provide equipment to areas of the world that are not connected to a power grid or are connected to unstable power sources.
Concepts:
For the residential market (in addition to that described below which will be sold to both markets), we've built 2 different types of bike stands to set a road or mountain bike on, where the rear wheel of the bike runs a roller that then in turn is connected to a generator. In this case, resistance is increased or decreased by simply changing gears on the bike.
Equipment for residential, commercial facilities (gyms, workout rooms) and small villages we’ve built or created include a Stationary bike, Elliptical, and Multifunction Weight Bench where resistance on each is increased or decreased by adjusting a mechanical setting in the unit that drives the power generator.
All units can be connected to one aggregation point that send combined power to a battery bank, power grid, selection of one or the other, or we can install it so that the units send all power to a battery bank and once full, power is then sent to an AC power grid.
Individual units can be purchased where you simply plug them into any standard US 110vAC outlet and power is fed into a power grid at that point.
Benefits of This Concept (Why do this)
1) Get more out of exercising by making use of energy burned during exercise by producing electrical power at the same time
2) Use as a marketing point to attract people to a workout facility or gym.
3) Reduce power used from National Grid (slows your meter down).
4) Potential for tax write off opportunities for equipment & installation, and/or annual depreciation.
5) Be a participant in the next wave of alternative energy generation.
6) Metering of power will allow for more detailed measurable metrics to gauge the accomplishment of a workout (instead of miles or reps, we measure power produced in peak watts, peak amps (high point of the workout) and amp hours and watt hours (for total power produced during the entire workout)). Power produced could be tracked on a per individual basis or cumulative for a
group of people.
7) A workout facility or gym could also have team competitions to see which can produce the most power. This could facilitate membership sign ups in bulk.
8) The Mountain Bike Stand option can make use of a bicycle that you already own, without making any
modifications to it
9) The stationary bike and mountain bike stand can simply plug into any household AC outlet to consume
power produced. Both can also can be wired into any existing DC battery bank.
10) Tax deductions should be available by purchasing one of these units
Options for Installation
a) We can add power producing equipment onto existing gym or workout facility exercise bikes, select weight benches, and elliptical's. Here, we first would need to view and measure this existing equipment and then custom build the peripheral power producing add-ons. To this point, the only modifications we had to make to the exercise equipment itself was to cut part of the back of the cover out of the elliptical. We could ensure where to order a replacement cover from if necessary in case we need to revert the elliptical back to its original form.
b) We can build complete units and bring or ship them into the facility.
Grid connection is accomplished by simply plugging the units into a wall outlets and feeding power from the exercise equipment to the outlet and onto the buildings grid, thus slowing the power companies meter. Or several units can be wired to a single common point where connection to a wall outlet is then made.
DC power to feed batteries would need to be to an existing set up with solar panels or a wind turbine where a battery bank already exists on site. If neither of these exist, we could also coordinate a Solar installation with a NYSERDA approved installer, or could also install a custom battery backup system that would power back up lights, ect and then flip over to feed the facilities AC power grid once the batteries are full.
Workout Facility Responsibilities and Actions
• Sign an interconnect agreement with local power utility to allow for connection of alternative energy
equipment to the grid. This is minimal or zero cost and we will help fill out the required forms.
• Identify equipment to enhance with power producing add-on.
• Make space for prototype units we'll bring in. Will need access to AC power outlets or will need one area (4ft x 4ft) to wall mount the following electrical equipment:
Meters
Wiring
Fuses
Inverter
Switch & Charge Controller (if
connecting to DC batteries)
• Provide location for metering gear.
• Provide feedback on use, customer comments, issues.
• Let us in, at will, to inspect equipment.
• Sign an non-disclosure agreement (NDA) agreeing to the following high level contractual terms:
a) Agree to not share any of this technology with any persons, businesses, media, or live human,
computer system, social media, website, being without written consent from Ian Paddock.
b) Never remove any coverings or guards with customers in the facility while the patent is pending.
• Market this to attract customers. We would help with this too if needed.
Safety
To ensure the safety of users and the facility, the following pre-cautions (minimally) will be in place:
• Each piece of equipment will be fused.
• Each piece of equipment will be grounded.
• We'll provide an electrical engineer to inspect the prototype builds and the final installation.
• Installation will adhere to local building codes.
• We will cover moving parts with shields or guards.
Click here to view details describing how Exercise Power fits into the overall concept of Energy Farming, where energy is farmed at a given location from available resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels, and from this concept, jobs and revenue can be created for a community.
Inverter for stationary bike generator