I got an e-mail from a friend in Humpenden, Herts this morning. He said they were researching producing electricity from hi-tech speed humps. I e-mailed him back to say that the town could be self sufficient for its power as there are so many speed humps in the area!
I checked my calander to ensure, it is not April 1st. It is not. Has anyone else heard about this or is it an August silly season news item?
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Saw an item on BBC (local?) news this morning about a group of youngsters going to a 'green' exhibition in Holland. One of them had proposed a energy-from-speed-humps scheme and was in the running for an award. Quoted something like a car going over a speed hump could keep a light bulb going for 9 hours.
Didn't mention who was ending up paying for it.
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mazda? if they use mazda bulbs?
philips on holiday
osrama is stuck in afghanistan
bosch is feeling his bumps
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Why not stick mini-wind turbines (like those rotating shop signs) along the side of motorways?
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with advertising slogans attached
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When we were kids in the '60s and '70s we used to cycle across Edinburgh city centre to school. In traffic and everything, no helmets either...ooer......
Most mums didn't have cars then and anyway 4x4s hadn't become sexy. That saved energy.
Another energy saving trick when cycling was to hang on to the back of a flatbed truck when going up hills. Would be too dangerous now of course or seen as such anyway. Friend of mine had it down to a fine art by carrying a garden cane with a cup hook screwed in the end so he could catch hold of the back of a truck more easily. Worked well enough except when the hook pulled out sometimes...
Astonishingly enough we all survived although we probably didn't deserve to. Can you imagine the scandal now if such a thing were caught on cctv ? It'd make the national news. We did it most days for years as did many others. Daft really but it was sort of normal at the time.
Not recommending this you understand but the point is, we would need less energy if we used less...
Lots of fat people now aren't there ? Is this a coincidence ?
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Noticed in Germany and Holland that bicycles were much more of a "social" tool - loads of them being used for "journeys" rather than as a leisure time activity - bikes were more conservative in design and not fashion led as they seem to be in the UK - funnily enough in neither country was there little evidence of helmet use.....we a re a very odd little country.
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Strangely enough I've just been chatting to a neighbour who hailed me as I rode past his house this morning on my bike. "Getting some excercise?" he called. "No, just been to the bank!" said I. That seemed to puzzle him......
Says it all really...
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Why not stick mini-wind turbines (like those rotating shop signs) along the side of motorways?
Or even better, put them directly on the cars. Think of the petrol saved by using the energy generated at 70mph.
( :-) )
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No, no Focus. No petrol saved, you direct the electricity generated straight to an electric motor - energy crisis solved. Just fit a set of pedals to allow you to get the vehicle up to a speed where sufficient electricity is generated. With the combined intelligence of our politicians, they'd go for that.
JH
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No no Focus. No petrol saved you direct the electricity generated straight to an electric motor
Excellent! It's people like you who have made this country what it is today.
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Ah shucks, thanks Focus. We all have to do our bit.
Have you noticed that one or two poor sad souls think we're serious? :-)
JH
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if these power generation 'road hums' are introduced, you can bet your bottom dollar that any cars average economy will go down due to more friction.
You can never get power from nothing, power has to be transferred.
as for wind generators on cars, the same rule applies.
There is no such thing as perpetual energy.
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"You can never get power from nothing, power has to be transferred ....as for wind generators on cars, the same rule applies.....There is no such thing as perpetual energy."
Many thanks for pointing that out ;-)
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Tesco - I believe were reported to be installing these at their "green" stores. Old story.
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i always thought the green stores were asda
should look at me oops more often
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There is no such thing as perpetual energy."
Rubbish. This very day I have sent off for some magic magnets on ebay that will provide free electricity
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Altea Ego, I hope you didn't pay too much. he he
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B&Q new malden is that companies flagship green store. It has ground source heat pumps, and windmills etc. But its coup de grace is the car park underneath. This has been so badly designed with entry, exit lanes and access points so badly signed and sited that fights break out constantly between motorists. The hot air rising from this couldron of hate, heats the store.
This carries on outside where the car park disgorges already angry people into the middle of a two lane queue to get onto roundabout under the A3.
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There's a message there AE.
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There's a message there AE.
Go to B&Q in new malden if you want a fight?
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im attracted to the magnets
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These road-hump generators look like a sensible idea if they are used in places where roadhumps are needed anyway, like on the way into supermarket car parks etc. It would be counter-productive to place these where they're not needed just to generate electricity, though, since cars passing over them would use more fuel as they'd have to accelerate after slowing down.
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Quote:...>> Why not stick mini-wind turbines (like those rotating shop signs) along the side of motorways?
People have looked into this idea. Someone has developed a small vertial axis wind turbine - like a drum shape with vanes round it, which is supposed to be suitable for such applications. The efficiency of wind turbines increases with their size, and vertical drum turbines are less efficient than bladed turbines but they have the advantage that they don't need to orientate themselves to the wind direction. So these relatively small drum turbines wouldn't generate much power individually but they would probably be the only acceptable format for installing at intervals along the sides of motorways or railways.
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If one considers all the heavy lorries descending hills in this country with brakes or retarders checking their speed, imagine the amount of energy that's going to waste, mostly dissipated as heat. I imagine the problem with regenerative braking on lorries is the weight of batteries or supercapacitors needed to store the recovered energy would eat into the payload capacity within the maximum permitted weight.
Edited by Sofa Spud on 11/08/2009 at 15:43
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im attracted to the magnets
Must be the iron in your soul bb...
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Actually the power from speed humps idea sounds quite promising.
If they were made of rubber like the traffic light switches we had before magic electric eyes and carphounds in control rooms deliberately obstructing the traffic flow, they could be programmed to flatten and drive little air turbines or whatever if cars drove over them at 30 mph (or 20 I suppose in one or two places), but to choke up and fire the cars into the air if they went much faster or much slower than that.
So if you drove at or close to the correct speed you would get a smooth ride and generate electricity and a warm glow of virtue. If you were a mimser or impatient person you would suffer the discomfort and car damage we all have to suffer now. Perhaps the bumps could be programmed to shout out your registration number and an appropriate insult at the same time.
Edited by Lud on 11/08/2009 at 15:54
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"If one considers all the heavy lorries descending hills in this country with brakes or retarders checking their speed"
Fit the speed/power bumps on downhill stretches of the inside lane of motorways. HGVs could use them instead of brakes, and an ANPR camera could be linked up with DVLA to give them a reduction on next year's tax disc according to the amount of power generated each time they used the lane.
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Forget electrical power .
Gas power generation is what is required ...
Farmers when milking cows twice a day just have to connect up another tube to each cows backside and collect the resulting methane gas .
Multiply by the millions of cows in this world and that gives you more gas than in the middle east .... and it stops the hole in the ozone layer and cures global warning as well...
As the meerkat says - Simples....
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"Farmers when milking cows twice a day just have to connect up another tube to each cows backside and collect the resulting methane gas ."
Most of the methane is burped, not expelled from the rear. You have to be a country boy to know this.
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Most of the methane is burped not expelled from the rear. You have to be a country boy to know this.
...or watched 'The One Show' the other night :-)
(IIRC - that sort of programme anyway)
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Pah ....Belching cows - Rubbish.... Everyone knows that cows produce methane from the end that doesn't munch the turnips.-- what does it matter what end it comes from anyway.
The One Show is cited as the authority That Adrian Chiles - what does he know anyway...mind you I'd believe it if the lovely Christine smiled that smile at me and said it was true.....
Bit why pour cold water on a brilliant idea.. you just stick a tube in the cows mouth as well , double the methane - ..... I tell you its a winner
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Fit the speed/power bumps on downhill stretches of the inside lane of motorways.
Heh heh !!
" Right Jim, your first run today is take that trailer load of eggs down the M1......mind them 'umps....."
;-)
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im attracted to the magnets>>>
So am I,ever since Iv`e had these new hips.
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