Will bike for food.

The Crowne Plaza Copenhagen  has come up with an idea to encourage it's guests to be more physically active and environmentally conscious.

The 366 room hotel. located only a few minutes from the center of the Danish capital has installed two exercise bikes hooked up to generators. Any hotel guest is invited to get on the bike and pedal. Once they produce 10 watt-hours of electricity, they are given a voucher for a complimentary meal at the hotel's restaurant or lobby bar valued at about 240 Danish crowns ($44)

The bikes are equipped with an iPhone that guests can use to monitor how much electricity they are producing. The plan is to have the bikes up for a year from April 19, with the plan to possibly expand it to more Crowne Plaza hotels

"Anyone producing 10 watt hours of electricity or more for the hotel will be given a locally produced complimentary meal encouraging guests to not only get fit but also reduce their carbon footprint and save electricity and money," the hotel said in a statement

This is more of a gimmick than anything, 10 watt-hours is only enough electricity to power a 100 watt light bulb for 6 minutes, and the hotel - one of the greenest hotels in the country already has a solar-panel array on the roof producing more electricity than the hotel needs. But, it is a good gimmick. The hotel figures that a guest spinning at 30 km/h (18 miles/hr) for 60 minutes would generate 100 watt-hours of electricity. I wouldn't mind seeing something like that in some hotels here in the US. I'd happily spin away for my dinner.

Article found at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100414/od_nm/us_hotel_electricity