Is it feasible to generate useful amounts of electricity by having people manually generate it, e.g. by riding an exercise bike?

Question

I’m not familiar with the mechanics of electricity generation and such, so I’m curious if there are good reasons why this isn’t possible or useful.

Edit: thanks for the great responses! I gather that the main problems revolve around the fact that it will take more energy to outfit the machinery and feed the people than you’ll get in return.

In: 5

Answer 1

Depends on what you mean by useful amounts. The amount of energy you get out will always be much lower than what you put in.

Back in the days before LED lights, many bikes would have a small dynamo that could be driven by the tire to power a headlight. That’s certainly useful if you’re biking home in the dark. But it makes pedaling noticeable harder so you’d only use it when it was really needed.

https://discerningcyclist.com/what-is-bicycle-dynamo/