Technology harnesses the power of exercising
Monday, June 16, 2008 |
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From The Gainesville Sun, June 16, 2008
Hudson Harr was using an elliptical machine at a gym about a year ago when he had one of those "a-ha" moments.
What if he could make exercising a more productive activity? Harr, 22, realized he could convert the energy he expended while exercising into something useful - electrical power.
Shortly after, Harr, who has a degree in finance from the University of Florida, designed a way to make that happen.
The Gainesville Health & Fitness Center, at 4820 Newberry Road, is now in the process of testing Harr's technology: the ReCardio system. The technology, which has a patent pending, is internally wired to 15 elliptical machines at the gym and converts the kinetic energy from pushing pedals into electricity. The power produced by the machines is plugged straight into the utility grid, helping produce power for the gym and offsetting the utility costs.
Each elliptical machine has the ability to produce one kilowatt of electricity every 10 hours, which is enough to charge the battery for a 2004 Toyota Prius once or a cell phone up to 397 times. In the last couple of months, since the Gainesville Health & Fitness Center has been testing the ReCardio system, about 150 kilowatts of electricity has been produced.
"It's about getting people involved in the process," Harr said. "This is what a kilowatt means. This is eco-friendly."
Joe Cirulli, owner of Gainesville Heath & Fitness Center, said he'd like to connect more elliptical machines that use the ReCardio system and, when the time comes, would like to connect the technology to other machines.
"We'll use every one (Harr) can find out how to do this to," Cirulli said.
Harr, the founder and CEO of ReRev LLC, a renewable energy company, is now working with several large institutions and franchises to put the technology currently only hooked up to elliptical machines into practice. The University of Florida is one place this patent pending system may make an appearance.
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For more information on ReCardio systems, visit www.rerev.com.