Posted on 01/02/2009 7:50:43 AM PST by Reaganesque
That was my first thought, too.
If you thought replacing struts was expensive...
Next, there will be regenerative springs on the bus seats, regenerative shirt collars to make electricity from turning your head or flappin’ your jaw. Armpit regenerators, Pants regenerators, etc., etc..
With all these discoveries of sources of power, a truly zero emission vehicle may still be doable in the near future. This past summer, I rode in a Prius taxi in Vancouver, BC. I could see no reason why these types of vehicles wouldn’t be perfect for urban use.
Makes sense to me. Combine these shocks with regenerative brakes, solar cells on the exposed surfaces of the vehicle, fuel cells and what have you and we might have something that could compete with a gas fueled car. We'll see. It is getting interesting out there, though.
Capital cost, weight, and reliability/maintenance are always the tradeoff for regenerative systems or any fuel-saving technologies. My own instinct is that a regenerative shock absorber cries out for some hard numbers on how much energy actually is dissipated in a shock absorber in normal smooth pavement operation. In terms of, say, the power consumption of the typical vehicle's electrical system. Perhaps it would be more practical in a truck than in a light car - and perhaps the actual motive is to give a sports car a tunable suspension with superior handling characteristics.
Sure, big windmill on top of the car creating a drag that offsets any gain in electrical energy. I don't know if they would work or not but seems to me it would use more energy than it produced. This would be on the lines of a perpetual motion machine, as long as the car moved it would have power! Don't think it is feasible.
ping
and athletic bras that charge cell phones and ipods
Yup, that's were the rubber meets the road, (no pun intended) new technology at some point will have to be affordable or at least be comparable in cost or at least transfer costs to replace old technology unless forced upon us by legislation as I'm sure will be coming very soon
Hydraulid hybrid ping. No mention of an F150 in the offing, though...
Hydraulid / hydraulic.
I have seen proposals for shoes that generate energy for your cell phones/pda and so on. And there is also talk of smart clothing that can generate electricity for the same purposes.
and hydro-electric condoms for charging cell phones and ipods during sexual activity.
“smart clothing that can generate electricity”
Hope no polarity problems arise! How about regenerative condoms?
Haven’t heard of that one but, I’m sure someone’s working on it. LOL! Question would then be: regenerate what?
Well,,,, Won’t touch that one with a ten foot electrode. But a common nickname for electricity is “juice.”
Yeah, but Pennsylvania doesn't need excuses. It's the pothole capital of the world.
Now this is cool stuff, instead of the sappy enviro weenie make believe things we read about.
I see the day coming when the britches of ADD boys will be fitted with similar devices and all the excess figiting energy will be converted into electricity and stored in hip pocket capacitors.
American boys will be pretty much carbon neutral and will go a long way in solving the fossil fuel snergy crisis.
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