Travis gym program turns sweat into power
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE — Travis believes in fitness. It also believes in not wasting all that human energy expended during a workout.
Travis’ fitness center has connected 10 elliptical machines to the base’s power grid through a system that converts the exerciser’s energy into electricity and gives Air Mobility Command its first human-powered gym.
“A 30-minute workout could power a desktop computer for 15 minutes or a TV for 30 minutes,” said Tech. Sgt. Franklin Guerrero, the operations director for the fitness center.
The machines were modified by the Florida-based company ReRev, which retrofits gym equipment into power generators. The elliptical machines’ kinetic energy is captured in a device attached to machine, which turns that into direct current. The ReRev system then converts that to alternating current, which can be used by the base.
A TV monitor in front of the people using the ellipticals shows how much energy each machine is generating at the time. The harder the workout, the more electricity is created. It has also sometimes created an informal competition among users to see who can produce the most energy.
Robert Vunesky of the base’s Energy Conservation Steering Group notes the most important aspect of the conversion is “to educate people to be more energy conscious.”
“This gives visibility to a very robust energy conservation program at Travis,” said 2nd Lt. Brittany White of the 60th Civil Engineering Squadron. “It gets people to conserve energy on base and it gives a very positive spin on the idea.”
The fitness center is a good place to spread such a message, according to Fitness Center Director Dean Fazzio, who described it as a mini-community used by much of the base’s population.
Fazzio said the special elliptical machines and electricity generation monitor show Travis residents how much power it takes to run something like a computer or TV, so “maybe they will work out a little harder to give more back to the community.”
This also plays into improving base morale, because it shows that Travis’ residents can take a proactive, positive role in shrinking the base’s carbon footprint while improving their quality of life, according to 1st Lt. Heather Fletcher of the Manpower and Personnel Flight.
The Department of Defense’s goal is to cut energy consumption by 10 percent, and Travis is doing its part.
All of the Air Force’s installations have strived to become more energy-efficient, whether by educating residents to turn off lights when they leave a room, setting up more solar panels on buildings around the base or installing motion sensors that activate lights only when people enter a room.
Travis worked to conserve energy for some time and its efforts have won it a first place Energy Incentive Award two years in a row. That also provided $100,000 to invest in energy conservation projects.
Travis got its idea for turning the elliptical machines into electricity generators after hearing about a similar program at Edwards AFB. The installation was paid for by an energy conservation grant and the work was completed in January.
The fitness center also retrofitted lights at the basketball courts to cut consumption by more than 42 percent and put special sensors in the racquetball courts to turn off lights when the courts are not in use, cutting consumption there by 65 percent.
Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.
Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=131774
Posted by Ian Thompson
on Feb 8 2012.
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