http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8621038.stm

Great idea, I reckon! Many of us on here would eat for free, for sure! 😀

i'd give that a go, would enquire about further reductions too, am willing to give up an hour a day for a free room

Yeah; free food, booze, TV, internet access etc.

The fatties and the lazy sods would lose out, for sure!

Great idea that has tremendous potential, IMO.

(Toddles off to ponder home-based generator system)

Would be awesome, ok a bit boring for sure, but talk about saving money

So they reckon 15 minutes is 10 watt hours, so is that not an average of 40 watts output?

My 53 minute ride home yesterday was done at an average of 248w, so by my very quick and suspect calculations I would have to do just over 2 minutes riding to get a free meal, sounds like a good deal!

Well, people seem keen to have solar panels and even mini windmill generator thingies on their homes, but something like this could be very beneficial all round. Produce cheap energy, and keep people fitter. If you could develop simple, cheap and effective home systems, and give people financial incentives to use them, then we could all profit. Reward those makng the most effort, etc. I know some folk won't physically be able to do this, fair enough, but imagine if you sat on an exercise bike and gently span for a couple of hours a night, whilst watching telly, instead of just vegetating on the sofa?

We do live a pretty sedentary lifestyle in the West, and our greed and laziness is costing the planet big time. It's little ideas like this, which could make a lot of difference, I reckon.

There was a programme with a family who's house was being powered by 100 people (I think) riding bikes hooked up to generators. The problem is the shear amount of energy required to do anything useful!

Operating a shower requires something like 2000W, even Chris Hoy could only power one of those for a couple of seconds!

Brilliant stuff.

I wonder what would be required to create useable electricity in the home generated from a turbo trainer setup?

My 5yo son would happily power the telly using his bike if it meant he got to watch it!

Well, I accept powering an entire home would be a bit much, but ideas like this would be a help, surely?

I've long pondered how to use the energy we produce whilst cycling, to do something useful. I mean, you can get dynamos to power lights, etc, but a couple of hours ride could charge a mobile, etc.

I was in the science Museum on Sunday, and they've got a KERS unit from an F1 car on display, and it got me thinking. We use a lot of energy, but aren't particularly efficient at producing it. I'm sure there's loads of ways we could each make a small difference. Think of kids; loads of energy, run about all over the place; put that to good use! 😀