Green Power From Fitness

The world’s first Kilowatt Throwdown pits two universities in a contest to see who can generate the most electricity for the power grid – from exercising.

Green System equipment from SportsArt Fitness will be used by students and faculty on each campus for a month starting February 15

In a first of its kind event, two universities – Tennessee Tech University (TTU) and Chapman University will be engaged in a contest between the schools to see which can produce the most electricity for the power grid by using the SportsArt Fitness Green System gym equipment installed at their schools. The contest runs for a month, from February 15 – March 15. The energy output contest is handicapped to adjust for the number of Green System equipment at each school. The winning school receives a $7,000 treadmill from SportsArt Fitness. EcoFit – a separate company that provides the monitoring equipment that can be used with the Green System – will provide the top exercisers (energy producers) with separate awards from Best Buy and Footlocker.

The “Green” Opening of the Green Room at the TTU Fitness Center was on January 10 in Cookeville, Tennessee.

The Fitness Center is the physical home of Campus Recreation. It is an 80,000 square foot facility that opened in 1991. The facility was built and is maintained by using a portion of student access fees and revenue generated from products, services and programs for students, faculty/staff and graduates of Tennessee Tech University.

This project fits perfectly on campus because TTU’s community is committed to green initiatives. In 2005, students voted in a sustainable campus fee of $8 per undergraduate per semester. This generates hundreds of thousands of dollars that are strategically spent each year on projects to make the campus greener. A sustainability committee solicits proposals each year and the campus has a lot of input in what improvements are made.

Green-Tech for Student Fitness

Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, TN worked with three groups from the school – The Fitness Center, Facilities and Business Services and the Sustainable Campus Committee – to bring the Green System by SportsArt to TTU as part of the campus’ commitment to going green.

“Awareness is a huge part of it, but it’s us doing what we can to aid that,” Suzann Hensley, assistant director for campus recreation, said. “We use a lot of electricity in the fitness center and any time that we can do something that reduces that, that’s what we need to do. This equipment was available to us, and we thought, ‘Why not?’”

Getting ready for the Kilowatt Throwdown challenge at Chapman University in California

Thanks to new green gym equipment installed in Chapman’s Henley Hall Fitness Center, kinetic energy from workouts is recaptured and fed back into the grid. Now the race begins with Tennessee Tech starting February 15 to see who can churn out the most power.

At Chapman, the energy output will be monitored by equipment installed when the basement gym was refurbished with new machines that convert the energy from exercise into electric energy. The energy flows through an inverter, which converts it to electricity and sends it to the grid, significantly offsetting energy consumption.

“We hope to be the winning campus and earn Chapman another treadmill from SportsArt, the manufacturer of the fitness equipment and sponsor of the contest”, said Mackenzie Crigger, Chapman’s energy conservation and sustainability manager.

Chapman’s Faculty and staff are invited to participate, as well as students. Power Pass cards can be obtained from the Office of Residence Life, or the EcoFit app can be downloaded to smart phones and used to log all Henley Hall Fitness Center workouts.