I was thinking about energy shortage in the current situation. Also thinking fuels which are short term like petroleum etc. I understand we are using solar, tidal, wind and other non-conventional ways to generate power but not in high volume. What could be done at root levels to tackle power shortage.
We have learnt in our school days that energy can neither be created and not be destroyed, it can only be copnverted from one for to another. Having this as background, I had some wiered thinking few days back.
We have seen in recent past that people have become very health conscious and do a lot of exercise to excert energy and burn a lot of calories. This is energy expended and getting lost as heat or some kind of energy which can not be used in constructive manner. Is there a way to pouch these burnt calories into one of the useful forms?
What can be done:
1. Can we dynamos fixed under thread mills and cycles in gyms
2. Special mats which can sense step imapct and convert into electrical energy, in pathways of parks where milliions of people walk every morning
3. Many more sensors and energy converters in fitness centers !
What you guys feel !!!!
Regards,
Karthik Sunil
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Energy conservation
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5 comments:
The first and the third point you raised is already practical in many of the gym's here!! These gym's are self sufficient in terms of power.
We are not only using up non-renewable resources very fast but the by products are dangerous. There should also be some kind of research like some equipment attached to all vehicles which adds 'H' to 'CO2' emmitted and makes 'H2O'!!and some good way to dispose 'C' or else Split 'CO2' and add 'H4' to 'C' tomake methane 'CH4' which can again used as fuel!! and release 'O2' to air!!.
What do you say?
The problem with all these solutions is energy storage. Storage of energy is expensive. AC cannot be stored. It has to be generated as the demand increases and production reduced as demand decreases.
DC storage is too expensive and any substantial amount of storage needs huge batteries. Toyota Prius batteries are the size of huge suitcases and cost about $5000+. I once went to a friend's estate is Coorg which was 2 km away from the nearest house. They had solar panels all over the house for electricity, but the storage shed was 150ft away from the house and housed about a dozen huge heavy duty truck batteries.
Battery technology costs should come down to make these plans feasible.
Yep, I agree for the above mentioned points and these procedures already exist in many places making contribution to the energy need. But the biggest problem is energy storing which is very expensive. Let the research go on oneside, but the otherside we have to change our habits little bit. A small quantity of energy saved by many individuals will contribute to a bigger saving. Make people understand how important to be concerned about energy crisis. I really feel bad when one of my friend who leave lights on when going outside. The worst part is, my friend is an 'Electrical Engineer' :-(.
Lot of research has to happen in this area. I have heard that, in some country, they trying to charge mobile by just walking!
Along with this, we should teach our children to use as less as possible. Not only electricity, even water has to be conserved.
I don't see any effort is being done towards this. Today communication has revolutionized.
Television has become universal and even a kid knows how to use it.
So, governments should make it compulsory to show few minutes of documentaries in every channel for some time daily. Today technology is very advanced and people know how to attract kids to purchase their products. So, govt should make use of such creativity to drive the point. I don't know why nothing is being done in this direction!
Why not ask the people to just park their car/two wheeler about 2/3km from the office. Then walk to the office and walk back( They can jog if they want to). This will give them exercise, it will save fuel and money, and it does not require any more research :-)
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