When you use your power tools or plug in lights and other equipment, it's difficult to visualize how much energy is being used. Not after watching this video.
Olympic cyclist Robert Förstemann’s legs are among the most powerful in the world–his thighs have a circumference of 29 inches. Some researchers put him on a stationary bicycle connected to a 700-watt toaster, one of the kitchen appliances that uses the least amount of energy.
Even an Olympian struggled mightily to keep the juice flowing. Drenched in sweat with his leg muscles exhausted, Förstemann says “Nobody can believe it, if you do it at breakfast, inside the toaster, nobody can believe how much work it is.”
To put this in perspective, if a toaster needs one Förstemann to power it, a car needs 180, and a plane needs 43,000.
Treehugger has the full story.