Doing sports in an energy-efficient way

Hello everyone,

We would like to introduce you to our project about doing sports and saving energy at the same time. In this decade it has become a huge trend for people all over the world to visit a fitness-center on a regular basis. As you can imagine these centers consume a lot of energy for electricity, heating, the machines and for their wellness-areas. In this project we searched for ways of powering a fitness-center in a more energy-efficient way. We also looked for gyms who already found a way of doing just that. During this process we came across the “Cadbury House Gym”, the “EMPA NEST” and we also got in contact with “Activ Fitness”, one of the most popular gyms in Switzerland. It was even possible to do interviews with “EMPA NEST” and the “Activ Fitness” and collect a lot of precious information from them. So please sit back, relax and enjoy our project!

The “Cadbury House Gym” in Bristol

The “Cadbury House Gym” in Bristol is the first gym worldwide to use the energy from the people who are working out to supply the gym with energy. The gym uses cardio machines, treadmills etc., from Technogym. Technogym has developed a line of self-powered machines called ARTIS. As soon as the machines have generated enough power to function they save their generated energy in a dynamo or holding cell. This energy gets fed back into the building’s electricity supply. These machines use about 30 percent less electricity than regular machines. On top they generate 100 watts per hour to feed back into the electricity supply. (Source: daily mail www.dailymail.co.uk)

Video by a colleague from Bristol, gym visitor of the “Cadbury House Gym”

The “Activ Fitness”

In Switzerland this whole process came along a bit later. To find out how well developed the gyms in Switzerland are, we tried to do interviews with multiple centers. Finally, the “Activ Fitness” agreed on doing an interview with us. We did some questions in Rüti ZH with Peter Koch (Personal Trainer), some in Rapperswil SG with Martin Huber (Personal Trainer) and some in the administration in Oerlikon with Dora Schwärzer (Assistance of Administration):

First I would like to ask you how long your gym excists?

Activ-Fitness is working since 15 years, since 2007 it is part of the Migros-corporation.

What has changed in the course of time, in terms of the possibilities one has as a gym, in terms of electricity Generation?

To supply our studios with energy we generally rely on organic electricity. In larger places such as Opfikon and Sihlquai we use also solar panels. Since the beginning Activ-Fitness uses energy-saving bulbs.

Does Activ-Fitness take the advantages of these new opportunities (renewable energy)?

(laughs) As far as I’am informed there are no plans (yet) to produce our own power.

If so, how much of your studio is self-operated?

Our solar panels deliver about 1/8th of the total amount, by  the end of 2025 it hopefully will be 1/5th.

If not, have you ever thought about using this method? What stopped you?

Because of the room situation we can not use such a new technology.

Do you have other measures to save energy?

Our main goal as sport-coaches is to motivate the people to work out in groups. That saves space, electricity, heating and staff energy.

Which part of your studio consumes the most energy?

Sauna uses lots of energy because of the warming process. The second largest is the warm water heating. We are planing to introduce a more energy saving heating system in the near future.

How much energy does your fitness consume on average?

The Studio in Rüti consumes  approx. 50‘000 watts (one conventional light bulb needs for one hour about 400 watts).

Compared to other fitness centers, what makes your fitness centers more exemplary in terms of friendly use of energy?

We are promoting our studios as environmental friendly places and we are motivating our guests by supplying a serious but cheerful service.

The “EMPA NEST”

Through our teacher we got to know the “EMPA NEST” in Dübendorf. This is an institution which researches in energy-saving methods. They also have a gym and a wellness-area. The “NEST” has immediately caught our attention and we wanted to do an interview with them. Finally we got in touch with Stefän Kälin, leader of the communication department. Here is our interview:

Wann und wie kam man auf die Idee NEST zu bauen?

Die Idee existiert bereits seit über 10 Jahren. Anfangs war es schwierig, Industriepartner zu finden: Die meisten Akteure, die wir angefragt haben, fanden die Idee zwar grundsätzlich gut, wollten sich aber nicht verpflichten, weil sie wohl nicht glaubten, dass sie realisiert würde. Letztlich war es die Nuklearkatastrophe von Fukushima 2011, die Bewegung ins Projekt brachte: Der grösste Teil der Finanzierung kommt aus dem Energiebereich. Der Spatenstich erfolgte 2014, eröffnet haben wir 2016. Heute kommen die über 140 Partner aus den unterschiedlichsten Bereichen – aus der Forschung, der Industrie und der öffentlichen Hand. Sie alle nutzen NEST, um neue Technologien und Systeme in einem realen Umfeld risikolos weiterentwickeln und validieren zu können.

Was gab es für Komplikationen?

Gab es kaum. Es war eigentlich ein ganz normaler Bauprozess. Die Bewilligung gestaltete sich etwas kompliziert, da dieses Haus niemals fertig ist. Aber auch da wurde ein guter Weg gefunden mit der Stadt Dübendorf. Natürlich ist es aber auch immer wieder eine Herausforderung, da wir immer wieder neue Module implementieren.

Wann kam die Idee für ein Selbstbetriebenes Fitnesscenter auf? Inspiration?

Das Modul entstand in Zusammenarbeit mit Suissetec, dem Verband für Gebäudetechniker in der Schweiz und in Liechtenstein. Die Suissetec feierte 2016 das 125-jährige Jubiläum und zu diesem Anlass hatte der Verband dieses Modul unterstützt. Suissetec wollte damit etwas unterstützen, was verdeutlicht, dass Gebäudetechnik etwas Spannendes ist, da dies sonst eher im Hintergrund stattfindet. Diese Unit war dafür geeignet.

Was für Geräte benutzen Sie im Fitnesscenter?

Die Geräte sind von Technogym und damit reguläre Geräte, welche gekauft werden können. Die Ausdauergeräte speisen die erzeugte Energie zurück. Die Geräte erzeugen genug Energie, um sich selber anzutreiben und noch etwas mehr.

Gab es Probleme, bezüglich der Realisierbarkeit des Projektes Fitnesscenter?

Nicht mehr als bei den anderen Modulen. Auch hier hatten wir diverse Partner, welche uns unterstützt haben.

Denken Sie, Ihr Konzept könnte in Zukunft für grosse Fitnesscenter funktionieren?

Das könnte durchaus funktionieren. Jedoch geht es bei uns primär um Wellness (Saunas, Dampfbäder) und sekundär um Fitness. Das Problem bei Wellnessanlagen ist, dass sie unglaublich viel Energie verschlingen. Daher betreiben wir unsere Saunas und Dampfbäder nicht mit Elektrizität, sondern mit einer Wärmepumpe. Die generierte Wärme, ca. 130 Grad Celsius, wird dann Kaskaden ähnlich auf die Saunas und Dampfbäder verteilt. Zuerst wird die Finnische Sauna, welche am meisten Hitze benötigt, erhitzt. Danach geht es immer weiter nach unten. So können wir natürlich enorm viel Energie sparen, da wir quasi immer wieder die gleiche Hitze verwenden. Unser Ziel ist es etwa mit 1/6 der Energie eines herkömmlichen Betriebes auszukommen. Im Jahr benötigen wir ca. 20’000 Kilowattstunden Strom. Dies wird hauptsächlich durch Photovoltaik abgedeckt. Der Teil, der von den Fitnessnutzern beigetragen wird, beträgt ca. 500 Kilowattstunden, was natürlich minimal ist. Wir haben uns bei dieser Unit versucht an einem Hotel zu orientieren, d.h. keine riesengrosse Wellnessanlage. Aber es wäre möglich, dies eines Tages auf richtige Betriebe anzuwenden, auch wenn wir momentan noch in einer experimentellen Phase sind.

Wer trainiert in ihrem Fitnesscenter? Öffentlich?

Das Fitnesscenter ist für unsere Mitarbeiter. Wir vergeben ca. 100 Abos. Die Saunas kann jeder Mitarbeiter individuell buchen. Das alles natürlich gegen eine geringe Gebühr.

Für die Zukunft, ist es ein Plan eine eigene Kette zu eröffnen bzw. Fitness weiter auszubauen?

Nein, für uns selber nicht. Uns geht es darum, ein effizientes Konzept auszuarbeiten und dies dann mit unseren Partnern umzusetzen. Einer unserer Partner ist die Migros, welche die meisten Fitness-Center in der Schweiz besitzt. Daher wäre es natürlich hervorragend, wenn dieser Partner unser Konzept anwenden würde.

Conclusion

This project has taught us many important things. We learned about methods which save energy, about places who already use these methods and about people who care a lot about these things. In conclusion we really have to say that this whole process was very interesting and we gained a lot from it. It is also nice to know, that there are people who constantly search for solutions for the environmental problems of our world. Thank you for reading this article, we hope it taught you just as much as us. Yours sincerely, the Sports Team.

 

Authors: Foad Fozouni, Cyrill Schnyder

Sources
Interviews
daily mail www.dailymail.co.uk

On-topic posts on dontwastemy.energy
Q36 – Movement
Protecting nature by bike
The Nest – exploring the future of buildings

☷ See the project teams here »
☵ Some words about the contributions »

3 thoughts on “Doing sports in an energy-efficient way

  1. I think this article is interesting because fitness is a very popular sport. This means that if every center would reuse energy, it could really change something. I’ve never seen a center like that in Belgium, so it’s a good idea to imply it here too. I think a lot people would go to the gym more often if they know it helps the environment.

  2. As fitness was a real hype during the past few years, it’s a great topic to do research on. It also is a subject with influence on the future what makes the article even more interesting to read. I haven’t been familiar with the technogym background before, however, I hit the gym a few times a week and therefore use them quite often. I’d have been interested in getting to know more about the process of energy saving or numbers comparing energy savers (technogym machines), rather than reading a long interview with a personal trainer but this is my personal view, only.

  3. We are impressed by the way the cadbury house gym is reusing the energy of the cardio machines and we like the idea of fitness centers which are working with renewable energies. Furthermore we think that a fitness center uses more energy in winter than in summer because of the heating process and we all know, that the gym is most used during the winter season. This fact also supports the idea of fitness centers with renewable energies and should be more common. Sadly we cannot get information about the energy which is used for the production of the cardio machines. We imagine that the energy for the production of these special energy renewable cardio machines is much higher than for normal ones.
    However, we found your article was very interesting and we enjoyed reading it.
    Best regards,
    Manuela and Anja

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