Think that a cyclist can produce enough peddle-power electric energy to earn a few dollars for their efforts?

Residential consumers buy electric energy by the kilowatt-hour - electric power being the rate of energy production (consumption) measured in watts. The retail price of a kilowatt-hour of electric energy is between 10 and 20 cents.

If a cyclist wanted to sell his power to an electricity company, he/she would not be able to sell at residential rates - he/she would receive the wholesale rate of 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. A good cyclist can produce 200 watts of power for a period of time that is dependant on the cyclist's conditioning - earning the cyclist less than 1 cent per hour. And, should that cyclist have enough endurance to pedal for 10 hours, he/she would earn a whopping 8 cents!

But if that cyclist also wanted to pay for a hot shower after his cycling, he would have to pedal yet another 5 hours to heat the water for a hot shower...

Watts You See is not always Watts You Get!