SRSC to house electricity-producing bikes

A new partnership between the Campus Recreational Sports and the IU Student Association could bring sustainability-minded exercise equipment to IU.

Three stationary bicycles, retrofitted with electrical generators, will undergo a demo period next week as part of a larger plan to install the electricity-generating bikes at the Student Recreational Sports Center in the coming months.

The bikes will convert a rider’s pedaling kinetic energy into electrical energy via the small generators. That converted energy will then be run back into a University building’s power grid through a standard power cord.

The bikes, which ride like regular stationary bikes, will show students how many watts they generate during their exercise. This knowledge will hopefully translate into a greater appreciation of energy and its conservation, said Ellen Spurgeon, chief and director of sustainability for IUSA.

“You are giving back,” she said. “You could work on a bike that takes energy, or you could ride a bike that gives back, in terms of sustainability. By having that knowledge, it will hopefully transition into other aspects of people’s lives.”

The current IUSA administration campaigned on a platform of SRSC sustainability during the spring 2011 election and began working on the initiative during the summer.

IUSA contacted RS early in the process and received help reviewing different vendors, gathering information from other schools with similar programs and setting goals for the program.

RS and IUSA eventually chose Seattle-based Plug Out Fitness from other competitors due to its simple product design and relative cost effectiveness.

RS had been watching the development of energy-harnessing exercise equipment and, when approached by IUSA, viewed this as a beneficial partnership, said Chris Arvin, program director of fitness and wellness for RS.

“This technology represents a teachable moment,” Arvin said. “We feel like we can raise awareness through the novelty and cool factor of the product.”

IUSA spent $3,946.41 on the three bikes, which retail for a few hundred dollars more than traditional stationary bikes. Approximately $80 was spent on three-kilowatt meters that will show riders their energy output.

However, the energy generated by bike users won’t be significant enough to have a financial or energy-saving impact. Not yet, anyway.

“The technology is not yet there to save money or to cut our costs significantly,” Arvin said. “The technology is not putting a significant amount of energy back into the power grid.”

Typical bike users during a typical workout can generate anywhere from 50 to 150 watts, which is enough to power a cell phone for a week, according to Plug Out’s website.

When applying the watt output to SRSC consumption, the converted energy is just a drop in the bucket, able to only power a few light bulbs at best, Arvin said.

He is instead focused on receiving student feedback on the educational opportunity the bikes will facilitate.

“We want to be able to give our regular users the opportunity to use the bikes and get their feedback,” Arvin said. “The idea of doing something for the environment really resonates with students. I anticipate that the bikes will be well-received.”

RS will collect student feedback on the bikes on various days throughout the remainder of this semester and into early 2012.

IUSA members and RS employees will be near the bikes, solicit feedback from users and explain to them the significance of their wattage output.

“The bikes can’t educate people. It’s the tool,” Arvin said. “That’s one of the primary reasons why we want people there to educate the students.”

For now, the demo will help raise awareness of the bikes’ arrival in Bloomington.
The demo will take place from noon to 8 p.m. Nov. 18 in the lobby of the SRSC and will consist of teams of Little 500 bikers competing for the highest wattage output.

“IU is such a bike-oriented school,” Spurgeon said. “The riders would tie in the educational component to the IU tradition of Little Five.”

Assuming positive user feedback, expansion of the Plug Out program is a definite possibility, Arvin said.

“We want to know it’s meaningful to students and that the technology meets our expectations,” he said. “If it’s yes to both of those, we will evaluate future
expansion.”