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what about solar panels built into the car rooves, as well as parking lot rooves too.

when a car's battery was full, the panels on its roof could be switched to feed the other emptier ones.

co-operation!

OT; i had a dream the other day where it was the future(!), and we generated energy somehow just using our physical weight while we slept. the bed was attached to microgeared cogs and flywheels, and very slowly descended during the night.

springs were involved...

dream on...

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sat Jun 28th, 2008 at 02:49:16 PM EST
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i had a dream the other day where it was the future(!), and we generated energy somehow just using our physical weight while we slept. the bed was attached to microgeared cogs and flywheels, and very slowly descended during the night.

100 kilos x 1 metre x g = 1000 Joules = 1 kilowatt-second.

So you need thousands of sleeping people to make one kilowatt-hour.

When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Jun 28th, 2008 at 05:20:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
heh, and here i was thinking people were going to call me on the energy needed to reposition the bed for the long night's slow action...

the most pleasing factor in the fantasy was how all could start to feel useful, even ole folks who don't do much moving around any more.

the principle could extend to dance floors, which would be hinged to see saw, turning flywheels that way..

thanks for doing the calculation migeru.

would heavier people create more energy, or just hit bottom faster?

depends on the gears, i'd guess...

~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Sat Jun 28th, 2008 at 08:56:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Solar panels on car roofs aren't big enough to help very much. The amount of energy in a gallon of oil is very impressive when you start trying to replace it with something else...
by asdf on Sat Jun 28th, 2008 at 11:53:22 PM EST
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