Yup and it's only "free energy" if you would do exactly the same exercise but waste the energy as heat. Otherwise you're going to need a lot more calories in your diet, which I bet alone are more expensive than more traditional solutions. And that assuming the cost of the machine is also lower than those solutions.

None of the projects seem so innovative or compelling; save perhaps for the geothermal concept. I particularly don't think a bunch of guys fooling around with tools can come up with great solutions for those basic problems (energy, desalination); the disregard for scientific more basic research seems myopic. That approach works best for niche problems that were overlooked. If there were a silver bullet of energy or a simple way to desalinate I'm pretty sure we'd have found it already. Just looking at the basic physics (thermodynamics, minimum energy to overcome osmotic potential) would give a hint. If they do come up with something useful though, all the better.

Indeed. And I'm sure you'd work up a sweat doing it. If you want a hot shower afterwards any energy gains would be totally lost in heating the water.

In India I'd probably want to turn up the air con.

Ha, yeah me too. Wouldn't want to power it by pedaling though.

yes, and an hour of cycling is not the same as an hour on the average bike ride. Unless you're cycling up a mountain.