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Um... by definition, you won't generate any more power than the amount needed to raise the urine to the level it originally came from. |
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It probably makes more sense to put large turbines in sewers than to put small turbines in urinals. |
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No, but every bit helps. And it wouldn't hurt to do both. Well, of course, both would generate absurdly little power, but I'm for the urinal turbine anyway on grounds that it would be pretty nifty. Bonus power for countries where men are tall and urinals of the set-into-the-floor variety. |
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Hook the turbine up to a radioshack panel meter and people can measure how powerful they pee. |
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I take it the turbine will be covered, and the leads well-insulated? Otherwise you're asking for some very painful consequences. |
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and with all this excess power you could plug in your cellphone or pda while taking a leak! |
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You could generate more power if you
made this optional. Next to the urinal, you
have a big lever labelled "PULL TO ENGAGE
URINAL TURBINE". |
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Then just hook the generator up to the big
lever. |
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I pity the guy who has to service such a device. |
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You only need a set of steps in every pub that leads to the roof, on top of which you construct a "wizzing tower" (to increase potential energy of pee) from which you can relieve yourself. After all who (when a little full of the amber nectar) wouldn't want to climb ten flights of stairs to stand proudly at the top, arms akimbo, tackle out, to let the urine fly. All in the name of helping the environment of course! |
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Then you could equip the urine tower with a windmill on top, and piezo steps to really get things going. |
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Piss pour power [mrthingy], piss pour. [+] |
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You could make a miniature sawmill powered by a waterwheel that you pee on. It would be fun to watch, although i would probably start laughing and have trouble aiming. |
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Or you could generate electricity and use it to power the automatic flush valve. |
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there's a lot of wasted power when you flush the toilet, the power of gravity, the weight of water.
you could generate a good amount of electricity if you connect all toilets of the house, also the showers, bath tubes.. hydro-power! |
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//you could generate a good amount of
electricity// No you couldn't. Why do
people never stop and do the
elementary sums? |
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OK, suppose daily water usage is 150
litres per person per day (a generous
estimate); that three people live in the
house (450 litres/day), and that all the
water is used on the first floor, and can
therefore fall (say) 5 metres. So, we
have 450 litres of water falling 5
metres. A litre weighs 1kg, so we have
450kg.m of energy available. |
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Assuming we're on Earth, then 1kg.m is
about 10 Joules of energy, so we have
4500J of energy. This is enough to run
a 100W lightbulb for 45 seconds per
day, in a household of three people. |
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I have no idea of the energy cost of
manufacturing, transpoting, installing
and maintaining the device. But I
suspect that it would not even pay back
these costs. |
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All piss and vinegar, really. Forcing any greater head would reduce anyone prostrate. |
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Pee comes out very hot too... about 98F. Perhaps more power could be generated by making this into a "stirling" heat engine! Mwahahah! Of course it would work really good at football games at halftime to have people lined up to go into an insulated heat reservoir and to use the ice cold toilette water as the cold reservoir. |
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".....until finally, it was found that the
heat-death of the universe had been
caused by the waste heat from factories
making energy-recovery
systems." (Michael Pancreas, 'A Brief
History of the Future') |
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If all the damned thing could do was to light up an LED while whilst we peed, we men would be satisfied. |
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