Powering my home for a day in 2007, after my initial set of improvements, required anywhere from 9 to 37 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity, with the average being about 22 kWh.

To put that in human terms, when I ride hard on an exercise bike at the gym, I can generate around 100 Watts (0.1 kW), perhaps double that in short bursts, according to the readout attached to the bike. So riding hard for 1 hour, using my body to generate power, would yield 1 hour X 0.1 kW = 0.1 kWh. In fact, if I pedaled all day without drinking, eating, or sleeping, and used that energy to power my home, I would generate 24 hours X 0.1 kW = 2.4 kWh, slightly more than 10% of my energy use on an average day.
To extrapolate further, to power my relatively modest needs, I would need 10 people riding generator bikes 24 hours a day, for every day of the year. Of course, no one could keep that up... to allow for breaks for eating, sleeping, and recovery, I'd probably need 20 or 30 people, pedaling as much as they could stand, every day.
In other words, my energy needs go _way_ beyond what I can provide with human power.
