Working Out While Watching A Concert? Audience Pedaling and Powering The Concert in Yokohama on Free Bikes.
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan 
on 06.14.08
A “free” pedal powered concert was held in Yokohama, Japan last Saturday, June 7, by the music oriented NPO “ARCHSHIP” which focuses on bringing together music, people and community. The concert was titled “Yokohama Human Powered Concert: Power Saving Saves the Earth” and yes, the concert was in fact, “free”…..I would say “free of charge”, but that would be misleading. Actually charge was required from the concert attendees. It just wasn’t a financial charge. Rather, electric charge, generated using four specially refurbished old bicycles, was required from the audience. Bit confusing? OK, let me explain.
All electric power for the concert sound system was generated by pedalling the afore-mentioned refurbished bicycles (see video below), which were attached to specially designed generators. The audience did the actual peddling. I suppose one could say this is the ultimate in democratic art appreciation… At this time, I'd like to keep my comments on how long the concert lasted... Below is a demonstration of generating power for a 120W electric fan using the set up:
Now here they are generating power for a 260W desk lamp, a bit harder?
Now imagine doing this to generate power for a PA system. No word on injuries at this time, so we assume it wasn’t as hard as it looks. Actually, the peddlers were in fact chosen from volunteers, so attendees with less endurance were allowed to enjoy the concert without the added exercise. The concert also featured a cooking demonstration using only solar power, and a hands on demonstration comparing the relative energy consumption of Japan, the US and China using (heavily) weighted handbags, entitled “can you lift the energy bag?”.
Brought to you by Chris Harrington of greenz.jp
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Meet Green Business Consultant Tyler Moorehead, of GreenUnlimited
- Burn More Calories, Use Less Energy with Self-Powered Cardio Machines
- 7 Great Weekend Solar Power Projects
- Focus on Focus Earth: Saving the Whales (Video)
- Surf Green with Eco-Friendly Surf Gear
- The Week's Best DIY Projects: Kid-Friendly Coloring Books, Energy-Saving Chargers, and Woven Coasters
That's an interesting idea. All the exercise bikes should be converted to generate electricity. I mean people are burning the energy anyway while working out. We might as well channel it back into the grid. That's quite a bit of energy there...
Hell yes! I've been thinking about energy-producing exercise equipment for a long time now. Imagine a stairmaster that pays for itself over time by offsetting a gym's electricity bill during peak hours. I'd bet you could make a lot of money building such equipment. Obviously it wouldn't be worthwhile for home use, since it takes a fair bit of work (and money) to attach a generator to the grid, and a piece of gym equipment is going to see 100x as much usage anyway, but no doubt there'd be a fair market for those who want a pedal-powered backup to charge the batteries on their UPS (obviously you wouldn't want to straight power your electronics by inconsistent human pedaling).