Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj
Think of all the reasons you’d go to a gym for? Does it include generating electrical energy for your nation? Nope? Well, for Terra Hale's new gym in London's Shepherd's Bush Market, working up sweat while working some energy is the motto.
The gym's spin bikes are built to harness peddle power, generating energy that'll be put back into the local grid. Whenever a visitor peddles on the gym's "Eco-Power" spin bicycles, they generate watts. A dedicated smartphone app tells gym-goers their speed, calories burnt, distance covered and watts generated.
Everyone comes to the gym in order to lose weight or gain muscle and in order to do this you need to release energy. And this energy hasn’t been harnessed. And I believe there is a potential of doing this. And, I’m just a small fish in a big ocean, but if everyone would follow and copy, we can make a huge difference.Michal Homola, founder, Terra Hale gym
The gym claims a 50-minute spin class with 8-10 participants will generate between 1,500 and 3,300 watts.
To put that into perspective, a desktop computer uses about 400 watts an hour, a laptop uses 200 watts an hour. A glowing light build uses around 60 watts an hour.
Once you start spinning, you start generating energy and you should think about it as a solar panel or a windmill. So, we are able to capture as much as about 74 percent of the energy that you create and then feed it back to the grid.Michal Homola, Founder of Terra Hale gym
The energy-generating spin bikes are just one element of Terra Hale's environmentally-friendly philosophy.
The new gym, the company's third, is also a plastic-free zone. Gym-goers are told to leave their plastic bottles at home, they drink from these re-usable stainless-steel and wood containers instead.
It’s really nice that people are being more mindful about it and places like this just really bring home all of the things that we should be doing to look after the planet. Any gym that you go into has thousands of water bottles, plastic bottles, and it’s just nice to know that we’re doing something to give back to the worldAmanda Frith, Gym-goer
The water rowing machines are made from sustainably-sourced wood. Its yoga mats and rubber floor are made from recycled materials.
Rather than energy-sapping air conditioning, oxygen-generating plants hang on the walls. They're bathed in pink-coloured full spectrum lights to help them grow.
(With inputs from AP)
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