Originally Posted by
Closed Office
I did the math long time ago, and if I remember right, you would have to pedal most of the day to get 5 cents worth of electricity.
A 1hr TT (assuming an FTP of 250W) would yield 0.25kWh of electricity. Assuming electricity is about $0.10/kWh, that's 2.5 cents (also assuming perfect capture and transfer of the electricity).
To make ten cents, you'd basically have to ride a century on the trainer.
I still think it's kind of cool. You could power small appliances up to a personal desktop computer. Though those obviously vary, a round figure is 250W. A laptop would be less. A line conditioner would also help a lot to keep it steady.
So probably better to think in terms of what you could power with the output vs the amount of money it's worth. With a good setup, you could make it happen.