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By avatar72
#6662
To place devices that gain energy under pressure under paving tiles that is linked to an energy plant. Thus creating a brand new energy source proportional to the amount of shopping we do and saving the environment at the same time.

Reward: Just to see them in use would be cool
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By Steve
#6714
Not sure if this is feasible, but your could definitely link the revolving doors of a shopping center to a power generator. That in return could power the escalators. :-]
By Rishi
#6717
Thomas A Edison, whom I cosider as Inventor par excellance, did exacly that. Visitors complained to him that his gate was too tight to open. He told them that every time they opened it they were pumping 5 gallons of water from the well to his sump!

rishi
By MissPlayful
#6731
The problem with this imaginative idea is that every unit of energy you generate is an extra unit of energy the poor pedestrian has to expend walking. You can’t get energy for nothing. If the generator contains a moving part it’s the pedestrian foot that moves it.

Instead of the pavement remaining firm and unyeilding it moves downwards a bit under the weight of the pedestrian foot, so it takes a bit of extra energy to complete the step. To illustrate my point with an extreme example, try walking in loose beach sand that yields under your foot. It’s tiring enough shopping as it is without any additional energy drain.

On the other hand I suppose it could be a sort of energy tax or toll on city pedestrians, like the toll motorists pay if they want to go into central London. You could design it so that ten percent of the energy expended by the pedestrian is used to generate energy to run the city.
By avatar72
#7673
Thanks for your all the replies! I think that the point about conservation of energy and pedestrians is a good one, but maybe if the slabs did not move too much, say if a bed of cortz cristal was used much like those things you light the gas with wich create a spark under pressure. Alternatively they could be used under roads.

I would be a little worried about heavy rain fall and the posibility of ground based electrical storms :~(
By Rishi
#7696
As miss playful points out, there is no free lunch. Even if you use a piezoelectric device, the total enegy output will always be lower than the energy spent (by the pedestrian in this case) in activating the device.

rishi
By Pandion
#9330
This power could be a more feasable type of energy gain if used inside, in buildings and such. This would reduce the risk of rain damange and tampering as well as making it more feasable to install (just put it in all new buildings). When I had thought of this idea I was thinking tiles like said, which would depress slightly when stepped upon put would compress many air compressors or water compressors, what ever it was underneth that would generate the power. This wouldnt work as well in a highly traveled area though since it would allways be compressed. In a hightly traveled area a carpet of sort could be used that depressed the compressors individually (as in the shape of the foot or show). This would make walking sightly more difficult but only as difficult as walking on a squishy carpet, not sand.
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By Steve
#10471
srikant wrote:i would like to have your permission to take this topic for my reseach
No special permissions needed - enjoy! ;-D
By prolax23
#10688
See "Macleans" (Canadian National Magazine) macleans.ca, issue Sept 4, 2006 Page 12 - Discovery - "People Power"

"Japan railways is experimenting with generating electricity from the thousands of people passing through its stations every day.....The pads contain special crystals that produce electricity under mechanical pressure. As passengers walk over the pads, their movement generates tiny amounts of electricity that can be accumulated and then stored in batteries to power the station."

Not a bad idea....seems as though you're not the only one thinking about this type of energy production.

-prolax23
By Avatar72_and_a_half
#11802
Thanks for that, good to see someone is doing it already! Hard to come up with anything new these days. I've just started a PhD and keep finding that whatever I want to research someone has already done to some extent! lol. I had a look for that artical, but they wanted me to pay to download it, and my credit card is not too happy at the moment, so I don't think I will. By the way I had to change my username because i forgot my password and couldn't retrieve old one because email address had changed as well. But thanks for the info anyway. If i loose it again i'll have to call myself Avatar33_and_a_1/3rd, like the naked gun movies!

Cheers ;-)
By MajorAccent
#15567
avatar72 wrote:To place devices that gain energy under pressure under paving tiles that is linked to an energy plant. Thus creating a brand new energy source proportional to the amount of shopping we do and saving the environment at the same time.

Reward: Just to see them in use would be cool
By Japher
#19333
As an engineer I think it's an excellent idea. It doesn't matter that the energy created would be less than that exerted as the energy spent would be wasted in entirety if not used somehow. It's like jumping off a diving board; there is a lot of energy left in the diving board after you jump, and this evident by it's bouncing. It may be less energy than was used to propel the diver, but it is energy nonetheless.

I say go for it, those who want to research it, I can't believe it would be entirely too difficult from a construction point of view.

Also, for those wanting to research and "complaining" that nothing is new anymore; it doesn't matter. Who knows what you will uncover by researching something that has been done? In business it's not necessarily who does it first, but who does it best. The same is true in science.
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