1、 1 中文 2000字， 1200单词， 6300英文字符 外文翻译 原文 These Exercise Machines Turn Your Sweat Into Electricity Author: Tom Gibson Nationality: USA Originate from: IEEE Spectrum, 2011 ,48(7):50 - 55. Walk into a spinning class at the New York Sports Clubs facility on Eighth Avenue and West 23rd Street in Manhattan a
2、nd youll find 20 sweaty people furiously pedaling their stationary bikes. Look closely and youll notice something unusual about this workout: Each of the bikes is attached to a black box with wires running out of it. The box is a compact generator that converts the motion of the wheels into electric
3、ity, which is then fed into the power grid, offsetting some of the clubs energy use. For these gym-goers, its not just about their cardio fitness； their sweat is helping to make the planet a bit greener. By adopting power-producing exercise machines in this way, gyms can promote themselves as enviro
4、nmentally friendly and also reduce their electric bills. At least three start-ups in the United States are now selling equipment to retrofit aerobic machinesstationary bicycles, elliptical trainers, and steppersinto electricity-generating gear. These companies have already converted several hundred
5、machines at dozens of U.S. health clubs and university gyms. The reality, though, is that this technology faces major hurdles before it can go mainstream. For one thing, the economics arent very enticing. The energy output from a single exercise machine is quite small: Unless youre Lance Armstrong,
6、you might be able to power a ceiling fan while spinning a stationary bike, but not much more. So a gym might have to wait decades to recover the money it spent converting its exercise machines to generate electricity. Whats more, the energy output of these machines is so low that the environmental b
7、enefits they provide are scant. So dont expect that fitness enthusiasts pedaling stationary bikes are going to free the United States from its addiction to fossil fuels Backers of the technology respond by comparing the current cost of these machines with that of technologies like compact fluorescen
8、t bulbs or solar and wind power , which many people doubted would ever take off. They claim its only a matter of time until every exercise machine comes equipped with a generator. And with some 30 000 gyms in the United States, that would mean millions of machines-and many more in peoples homes-whos
9、e combined energy would then be appreciable. “ Stationary bikes create resistance, and through this friction, heat is produced,” says Jay Whelan, cofounder of the Green Revolution , in Ridgefield, Conn., the company that converted 2 the spinning bikes at the NYSC in Manhattan. “The industrial engine
10、er in me said, What a waste! Theres got to be a way to capture and use this energy. ” Although the basic idea of attaching a generator to exercise equipment is many decades old, the press started lavishing attention on this concept four years ago, after a Hong Kong gym called California Fitness rigg
11、ed 18 exercise machines to charge a battery and power fluorescent lights. Since then, three companies in the United States have been working hard to market the technology, each taking a slightly different approach. In 2007, Hudson Harr, then a 21-year-old graduate of the University of Florida with d
12、egrees in electrical and mechanical engineering, spent all the money he had amassing a collection of used elliptical machines and electrical parts. Transforming his mothers house into his laboratory, he began tearing the equipment apart. What he found is that some elliptical models already had small
13、 DC generators inside. These power the monitoring console and also serve to increase the amount of resistance the user feels when exercising. Thats because the current generated creates a magnetic force that opposes the motion that creates this current. By adjusting the amount of current created, th
14、e user can vary the resistance he or she feels. Normally, the generator uses a bank of resistors to dissipate the energy it produces. Harr figured that he could get rid of the resistors and put that power to work. “Essentially, we remove the internal resistance the machine has and give it an externa
15、l load, which is our equipment,” he says. Harrs strategy is to wire each elliptical machine to a central unit containing an inverter that converts the DC power generated to AC. The inverter in turn connects to the buildings electrical system and ultimately feeds the grid. Harrs lab is no longer taki
16、ng up space at his mothers house. His company, ReRev , based in Clearwater, Fla., has moved into a 1400-square-meter production facility and now employs 15 people. ReRev has wired up 150 machines at more than a dozen gyms. It has installed systems at many colleges, including Drexel University, James
17、 Madison University, Oregon State University, Texas State University, and the University of Florida. Meanwhile, the Green Revolution, the company Jay Whelan and Mark Sternberg founded in 2008, went down a different road. Instead of elliptical trainers, the two entrepreneurs focused on exercise bicyc
18、les. They started by taking an ordinary bike and propping its back wheel up on a triangular frame. Then they attached a car alternator to the wheel and hacked it to boost the amount of power it could generate, which also raised the resistance to motion it provided. Their initial idea was to design a
19、nd build entirely new exercise bikes with generators attached to them. But the owners of exercise clubs didnt want to buy all new equipment, so the two entrepreneurs decided to build a power-producing modification instead. Their module attaches directly to the bikes, feeding electricity to two 12-vo
20、lt batteries wired in series. When a user starts pedaling, the batteries charge, and when theyre full, the inverter kicks in and sends power to the grid, converting 24-V DC to 110-V AC. So are these electricity-producing exercise machines merely a marketing gimmick, something to make gym patrons fee
21、l good about their workouts? At the moment, that would seem to be the 3 case. Gyms that have embraced the technology say that by advertising themselves as greener than regular gymsand gyms are notorious power hogsthey can attract environmentally conscious customers. And if enough customers choose th
22、at gym rather than another one down the street, the initial investment will pay for itself much faster. Take the Green Microgym in Portland, Ore. Adam Boesel opened the facility in 2008 with Human Dynamo machines inside and solar panels on the roof. Boesel reports that his gym generates about 36 per
23、cent of its own electricity, saving nearly 40 000 kWh per year-although he admits that the savings come mostly from the solar panels. “People are very receptive,” says Boesel. He even initiated a program called Burn and Earn, which rewards customers with $1 couponsredeemable for food, beverages, clo
24、thing, and other merchandisefor every hour they operate the electricity-generating equipment. The electricity produced certainly isnt worth a dollar to him. And hell be lucky if hes still in business when the electricity generated from the machines finally compensates for the extra money he spent on
25、 them. But this might change in the not-too-distant future, if the companies selling retrofitted equipment can ramp up volume and bring costs down. Or if the mainstream manufacturers of exercise machines catch the wave and add an electricity-generation option to their products without charging a large premium for it. If including that feature ups the price only $100 or soa reasonable prospect given the very minor alterations neededthe payback period would rival that of many other conservation measures.
