I get this question all the time from students and entrepreneurs. “How long does it take to pay back the energy it takes to make this exercise equipment that creates electricity?”
I understand where the question is coming from. If you are going to install solar panels or windmills on your house or building, you want to know the payback. But what we’re doing is different than adding something to your building.
If you had two cars to buy that were exactly the same in every way, but one of them got better gas mileage, which would you go with?
If you had the choice between windows that were not energy efficient, and ones that were, and the cost was the same, which would you buy?
Ultimately, ours is a move toward sustainability, one sliver of a pie with many different ways to reduce our impact on the environment. “Doing the math” is fine, but it doesn’t settle things either way, and whether we could power the world with human power isn’t the point. The point is we’re making progress. We’re a part of the solution. We have a choice to waste energy or not, and we’re choosing to not waste it.
