What is Digg?61 Comments
- pynej, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6What you seam to be missing here is that this will NOT ccreate any new magical enery, all enery comes from some other form. This is mearly taking the car's energy and nabing a bit of it. But in doing so the car loses a bit of speed and thus has to expell more gass to make up for it. Yes a small bit of gass but it adds up. Why not save that gas and find a more efficant form of energy production... Just realize, enery dosn't come from nothing and i dont want to lose gass mileage for bob to power his christmas tree. (no offence bob)
- padewak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Let's rock on to "Electric Avenue" and then we'll take it higher!!
- stevesearer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I still like my idea of using homeless people to ride excercise bikes connected to generators in exchange for living arrangements. Give em a place to live, while creating electricity/training a champion cycling team.
- JulianMorrison, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5This doesn't generate power. It steals petrol, inefficiently.
- Beanis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I thought it was cool because it will take street lights off the power grid. Meaning a power outage won't mess up traffic.
- cosmotic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3So now instead of the power coming from the power plant, its going to come from my gas tank? Cool.
- Schmitty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2But over what length of time does it produce 10 kW? It seems like it is it's instantaneous power production. To really produce 10 kW continuously, you would need a constant energy input of 10 kJ / s. But if it produces 5 kJ in 1/2 second of having a car on top of it, then that could called 10 kW as well.
- JulianMorrison, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"unless they added new speed bumps for this purpose it makes no difference." - you don't understand energy. Regular speed bumps don't absorb much energy, just some heat from compression. Make a speed bump that absorbs energy and, surprise surprise, it will take *more* energy to cross. TANSTAAFL.
- vermin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is not about 'green energy' or using gas to power houses. It's an innovative little project that could potentially take advantage of a situation that exists already to generate power.
- joeyjojo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Is this a 'greener' way to make the electricity? Are cars less polluting that the power plant?
I suppose this is definitely better for remote locations. - Disease, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Is this a 'greener' way to make the electricity? Are cars less polluting that the power plant?"
Well you might as well get some energy out of speedbumps. It's a rather creative way to get some more electricity. - screensnot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If they use these only to replace existing speed bumps, it would be good. They would be harnessing energy where it is otherwise wasted. But adding them where there were no speed bumps before would be terrible. It would require vehicles to produce the energy that it is harnessing. We all know that a car/truck is very inefficient. Adding in any inefficiency of of this device, and it quickly becomes clear that it's better to produce electricity at a plant, and run it via wires.
But I still think it's a good idea, from a marketing standpoint. They could make a lot of money selling the idea to stupid municipal officials (which there is no shortage of). - Sirocco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1File this under "Why didn't we think of this decades ago?"
- carguy84, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1$26,000. tell me it's not just cheaper to use normal electricity??
- Rayfound, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Pretty cool, wouldn't steal any gas as long as they are only put in places where the cars are already braking, then it would actually be saving on brake pads a little bit.
- edmicman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe the state of Indiana can use this - they have freakin' speed bumps everywhere! Two in my apt complex, and two in my work parking lot alone!
- mianos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm with the dude whos said over 'how long'. 10Kw over a very short time is not really much energy. Good idea all the same.
- Wantednz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What a lot of people are missing is the fact that speed bumps are already there and the petrol etc is going to be used anyway. unless they added new speed bumps for this purpose it makes no difference.
- feross, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I drive over some speed bumps at about 40Mh to give the kids in the back something to laugh about. Will that create more energy than going over it at 25Mh? :)
- Stopher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"So now instead of the power coming from the power plant, its going to come from my gas tank? Cool."
I was thinking the same thing but it does save you the trouble and cost of wiring and running eletricity to remote locations, kind of like those roadside emergency phones with the solar cells. - Uthman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0So each ramp cost £25,000. that seems kind of a lot, but I can understand since they invested so much inventing it. And it isn't a typical american 'speed bumb' its a ramp that gets pushed into the ground, so vehicle drivers might not dispise it as much as, say-- bicycle drivers.
"The ramp is silent, comfortable and safe for vehicles," Mr Hughes said.
Well, I'm glad to see that people are still being creative =) - MindTrigger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0
Awesome! Transference of energy such as this, wind, ocean waves, geothermal, etc is what we should have been doing ALL ALONG. I truly hope gas rises to $5+ a gallon so that people will get off their asses and unleash the creative human mind. - Shots, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I think the idea is to
1) Build the damn thing cheaper. (How much is 1kwh of energy in your areas? )
2) Replace existing speedbumps. - aidanm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Now we need to devise a way to get 10 kW of power from every digg of this story
- gluon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Essentially this amounts to an extra tax paid implicitly through micro-amounts of extra gasoline.
- subscribtion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0There are going to be soo many more speed bumps now.
- Lazybones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Might be usefull for recovering some power in a place it wasn't collected before.. Or maybe for powering/charging road side warnings or something.
- hana, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0P = I V
Power = Current * Voltage
Voltage = Power / Current
It doesn't create 10kV of power, it creates 5 to 50 kV of Potential Difference. Duh. - Wantednz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"Make a speed bump that absorbs energy and, surprise surprise, it will take *more* energy to cross" - What? A ramp that goes down if anything will be easier to drive over than a static speedbump.
- daurkin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Could you imagine 10 years from now there is a speed bump in front of every home and office. Then they get sued for wear-and-tear on the car shocks.
- MrMysterious, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0All the fat ass SUV's in the US will cream 10x the power of the tiny cars in the UK.
- eleqtriq, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Looks like a great way for me to wreck on my motorcycle.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0THat's an innovative way to do it, digg
- Randude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Great idea! I wonder what the return on investment is? Hmm, since I live on a major road, I wonder if I could power my house from it?
- drbroccoli, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Put them in shoes.
- erguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0That's what is needed in Southern California, we could power a small city with the power generated!!
- panique, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0As a long time designer of perpetual motion machines, I know for certain no energy comes for free... So, they gov't would then be stealing energy from my car as it drives over this device. Clearly this is illegal. It should definitely be stopped. Why should I have to dish out $0.001 worth of gasoline every time I drive over a plate? I'm already paying for the goddamn electricity through my taxes anyway.
- screensnot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0fmaxwell said:
"What good is a speed bump that lays flat as soon as a large truck hits it at high speed but that practically cripples someone on a moped who is going at the speed limit?"
I don't think it will work like that. I don't know exactly how it does work, but here is how I think it might work:
It uses electronics to control the rate at which it lays down. So that no matter how heavy the vehicle goes over it, it lays over at the same rate. For a heavy vehicle, it can apply a higher load to the generator, and make more power. For a light vehicle, it lightens the load on the generator, allowing the ramp to flatten at the same rate, but producing less energy.
Think of it like regen braking on an electric car. There is an electronic controller that turns the electric motor into a generator. If you only need to brake lightly, a light touch on the brake pedal tells the controller to only put a light load on the generator, giving a slight resistance to the turning tires. Stepping harder on the brake pedal tells the controller to increase the generator load, giving you stronger braking, and more regen power.
Because these ramps will have at least some mass (thereby some inertia), there will be a point where the vehicle will be too small to knock the ramp over at the prescribed rate. So, maybe a bicycle would find a harsher ride over it, but it would feel the same to a sedan as it does to a semi-tractor.
Maybe these would be good to have at freeway off ramps. They could harness energy that is being turned into heat by our brakes. I doubt it though. Seems to me that it could cause problems if someone were making an emergency stop. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0yeah energy doesnt come for free
it is a gas tax nothing more
fine for replacing speed bumps already there
and i agree.. the homeless, prisoners and pets at the animal shelter should all be runing on treadmills generating power.
Now if only we could generate power out of the hot air coming out of our governemnet officials mouths, we would do away with all the worlds energy problems. - joincamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0wow, i can't believe this went over so many people's heads. just to reiterate what some people were saying, "It takes otherwise wasted energy, and makes it useful". You should feel privileged to ride over one of those speed bumps, because for that moment, you are driving a hybrid car with regenerative braking, except minus the wear and tear on your car. and i don't see these popping up like rabbits, since they would be fairly expensive.
- DJPandemonium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yeah, that thing would be a flippin nightmare on my motorycle, or my bike.
It is an awesome idea, and it's great that he's thinking outside the box, but it'd definitely have some issues that'd need to be resolved before it could be implemented en masse. - waldo21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Geese, I thought of this idea in 1997. I used it on my application for a student internship for the INEL, (now the INL). I didn't get the internship. I wish I could find the people who turned me down and send this link to them. :-).
- FoxHunter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Neat. Though like others I wonder if the return is actualy worth it. Still, I think it would be neat to see those arround.
- djhifisi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0cool! Wish I had invented this.
- dextre, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0ingenious!
- fmaxwell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Joincamp wrote:
"wow, i can't believe this went over so many people's heads."
Wow, I can't believe you think that you're smarter than all of the people who actually understood it.
"just to reiterate what some people were saying, "It takes otherwise wasted energy, and makes it useful"."
Just how is forward momentum in a car "wasted energy"? That's like me saying that I've found a way to take all of that energy you waste by walking places and harness it by putting you on a treadmill.
"You should feel privileged to ride over one of those speed bumps, because for that moment, you are driving a hybrid car with regenerative braking, except minus the wear and tear on your car."
Yeah, beating the suspension of a car up and down doesn't put any wear and tear on it. Neither does accelerating to make up for the speed lost to the power-stealing ramp.
"and i don't see these popping up like rabbits, since they would be fairly expensive."
I don't see them popping up because anyone with a bit of engineering savvy would tell you that they would lead to more fuel consumption, more noise, and more wear and tear on cars. - mskogly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I can't believe anyone else than me has had this idea! Thats just super. Speed bumps are everywhere in Norway, in the city of Bergen alone there are supposed to be over 2300 speedbumps. I have no Idea how many cars drive over them each day, but if it was 100000 hits per day (it probably is ten times that), that would generate 1 million kWh. Pr day! At least the city of Bergen would be able to generate enough to run all its street lights. Got to do some more research on this now...
- simon21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I have had the chance to study a very similar system the Egyptian Electric Pedal http://www.3t-eep.com/.
It is indeed wrong to think that this is just a way to produce "green" energy since it only converts potiential and cinetic energy of a car into electricity.
The technology may be of very high interest on slopes where cars have to get rid of their cinetic energy anyway (normally just dissipating them into heat).
The Egyptian Pedal I have analysed, drivers don't see anything at all, so they do not have this effect of slowing down the traffic. Depending on the traffic it can generate up to 3GWh per year and they sell this energy directly to consumers (they are actually looking for clients) at a price of only 0.06 USD.
So if you live on a street with high density of traffic and there is a slope nearby, you can contact them to get a clean and network independant energy source. - sentai, on 09/06/2008, -0/+0http://www.ce9.info I appreciate the good advices written in this article
- angedinoir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0There's not enough information to determine whether this is a regenerative form of energy or if it would actually take more than a normal speed bump.
If they really wanted to generate power, they would make some sort of device to harness the power from millions of nerds mastu^H^H^H -
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