绿色健身房与发电健身器械-外文翻译.docVIP

外文翻译 原文 These Exercise Machines Turn Your Sweat Into Electricity Walk into a spinning class at the New York Sports Clubs facility on Eighth Avenue and West 23rd Street in Manhattan and youll find 20 sweaty people furiously pedaling their stationary bikes. Look closely and youll notice something unusual about this workout: Each of the bikes is attached to a black box with wires running out of it. The box is a compact generator that converts the motion of the wheels into electricity, which is then fed into the power grid, offsetting some of the clubs energy use. For these gym-goers, its not just about their cardio fitness; their sweat is helping to make the planet a bit greener. By adopting power-producing exercise machines in this way, gyms can promote themselves as environmentally friendly and also reduce their electric bills. At least three start-ups in the United States are now selling equipment to retrofit aerobic machines—stationary bicycles, elliptical trainers, and steppers—into electricity-generating gear. These companies have already converted several hundred machines at dozens of U.S. health clubs and university gyms. The reality, though, is that this technology faces major hurdles before it can go mainstream. For one thing, the economics arent very enticing. The energy output from a single exercise machine is quite small: Unless youre Lance Armstrong, you might be able to power a ceiling fan while spinning a stationary bike, but not much more. So a gym might have to wait decades to recover the money it spent converting its exercise machines to generate electricity. Whats more, the energy output of these machines is so low that the environmental benefits they provide are scant. So dont expect that fitness enthusiasts pedaling stationary bikes are going to free the United States from its addiction to fossil fuels Backers of the technology respond by comparing the current cost of these machines with that of technologies like compact fluorescent bulbs or sola