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

Not particularly. It’s definitely possible, but people are not particularly space or energy efficient. For example, a midsized walk-behind lawn mower may have a 4HP engine. At a long-distance pace, that’s somewhere around the power that 8 to 12 fit people can produce on a bike.