A Human Powered Fitness Bicycle

Abstract

On the initiative of Michael Weber, a cooperation has started between the Delft University of Technology (Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, department Design of Sustainability), the Rotterdam Climate Initiative and Creditz (Michael Weber). Together they have set the goal to reduce the energy needs of fitness clubs by utilizing human power. This graduation report describes how human power in fitness clubs can be harvested and utilized. Therefore a strategy has been defined in the first part of the report that explains how human power can be introduced in fitness clubs and what the stakeholders (the initiator, fitness equipment producers, fitness clubs and customers) require to commit to their part. An estimation is made on the human power potential in fitness clubs. It is investigated which fitness equipment is most suitable for generating electricity, the intensity but also the frequency of use. Existing equipment can be categorized in: electrically braked equipment, mechanically braked equipment and equipment that requires electricity to function. Based on these outcomes and the insights from research to the market opportunities and the users two strategic product directions have been determined: 1. Retrofitting existing cardio equipment, especially cross trainers and cardio bicycles. 2. The selected direction, the development of a new framework design that is a best-in-class in utilizing human power from fitness equipment. This fitness bicycle combines the advantages of a cardio and a spinning bicycle with which both scalability and communicative value play an important role. The spinning bicycle offers a much leaner platform and the cardio bicycle a higher potential energy output, combining to increased environmental advantages. Because an important difference between these bicycles is taken out, the hybrid platform offers advantages in production costs (both financial and environmental). This new platform can become an important competitor for existing fitness equipment. The second part of the report focuses on the technological and environmental aspect of the development of this fitness bicycle. Central in the design of the bicycle is the optimization of the efficiency. This is an outcome of the comparison between a cardio and spinning bicycle with which comfort and performance should unite in the new design. The second part also focuses on the human product interaction, in the area of physical ergonomics, the development of a new interface and aesthetics. To enlarge the effectiveness of the “green” communicative value of the fitness bicycle, attention has been paid to two topics react on the experience of fitnessers in fitness clubs. A research has been conducted to determine if the awareness of the user as an energy producers can be stimulated by the fitness bicycle, by means of direct (numeric) and indirect feedback, creating a stronger connection between the sports activity and electricity. Also it has been investigated how the fitness bicycle would fit in a customer loyalty program (rewarding the user for their energy production) and how the technological infrastructure would look like. The application of RFID/NFC and low power wireless communication has proven essential for this. The result of the design process is a fitness bicycle that can compete with existing equipment in terms of the environmental impact for production, but that can produce electricity and supply this to the power grid with an efficiency of 65%. To enable this, the design uses components as an Magnetic Innovations outer rotor PM generator and a Swea inverter that converts the current for the power grid, but that can as well control the current with specially designed software; this ensures the user a natural bicycling experience. Until now, this has been an insufficiently acknowledged aspect – generating electricity is interesting for the user, but it is never the main goal of the sports activity. The fitness bicycling experience of the fitness club customers and owners should be changed for the good but not obtrusive, while providing the possibility to produce electricity. Because the utilized electricity is not converted into heat – as it is with normal equipment, requiring additional air conditioning – the returns of the fitness bicycle are increased by a factor 1:1,45. The research shows that the introduction of human power in fitness clubs can provide a contribution to reducing the environmental impact of fitness clubs.