As you glance up at the wattage on the screen while churning out a hard session on Zwift, the thought has probably crossed your mind: couldn't all this energy be put to better use, saving me some cash? After all, energy for our homes no longer comes cheap, and with millions of people now riding indoor bikes for fitness, it seems logical that some of that human power could be harnessed for everyday electricity. So why aren't our indoor workouts lighting our homes or boiling our kettles?
The main reason is that the modern home is just too power-hungry. Even if it could be harnessed, our cycling power would struggle to make a dent in our household energy use. The average UK home consumes roughly eight to 10 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per day. By comparison, a strong cyclist producing 300 watts for one hour generates just 0.3kWh of energy. In other words, you would need to keep that 300 watts going 24/7 and even then you'd only push out 7.2kWh, failing to cover your household's daily demand. Hitting the target would require 417 watts all day and all night long – even Pogi would wince at that.
