Energy-Producing Speed Bump Tested at Burger King

It's a PR stunt, they just want people to come buy food so they can see the bump. 2000W instantaneous should be replaced by 2000W "momentarily", NOT 2000WH! It probably takes more energy to produce, transport, maintain and repair this speed bump than the energy it produces after all the losses are accounted for.

It is never a good idea, the good idea is getting rid of all the speed bumps. Think about what happens when any intelligent driver goes over a speed bump, they slow down BEFORE they go over it then speed up AFTER, IF there was any point to a speed bump at all in encouraging people to drive slow, otherwise there was no need for it.

The way for Burger King to go green regarding customer automobiles would be to triple the speed (and possibly number) of drive through ordering and receipt so the amount of time you are sitting idle is a small fraction of the current length of time.

If they wanted to get really fancy and couldn't speed that up, they could install a sort of tread-mill where once your car enters the drive-thru line you turn off your car and it pulls you around to the window one segment at a time.

It's all rather silly though, small scale on-premises energy production isn't a viable long term solution unlike nuclear power. It's just a stop-gap expensive burden for everyone.
 
gwarren007 said:
^^^ lol, just think about if they installed this on the entrance and exits of every walmart!!!
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hahahah i know right or at the entrance to startbucks!! think of all the wattage those arrogant morons would create with the size of their egos. ....
 
From what I recall in reading the article, that BK franchise owner expects to break even in 2 years from this new tech.
 
its not stealing power if you dont harvest your braking yourself, as most of us dont. but there are a ton of those new hybrid cars out there that do regenerate when you brake- so in those cases burger king IS stealing power from them.
 
but really, im sick of going green. when i was a kid Walmart didnt even have doors even in the winter, they were just hot air blowers that blew down at the entrance and it was fun as hell as a kid.
 
These things would be great at toll booths, where 100s of cars & trucks would power them. We should design similar paddles to harness the power of ocean waves, those never stop or slow down as traffic does.
 
Probably sound crazy but why not just put them all over the road? like next to one another. >> Just a thought. Not so much bumps but uh. Idk. "Road"?
 
TheCadaver said:
Probably sound crazy but why not just put them all over the road? like next to one another. >> Just a thought. Not so much bumps but uh. Idk. "Road"?
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Because you can't create or destroy energy, only transfer it from one form to another. When transferring energy it'll never be 100% efficient, everytime you change, part of it will be lost in the form of heat.

If there were little pressure plates all over the road, the energy to push them down would be taken directly from the car (engine.) The car only uses ~30% of it's fuel to move forward, the rest is lost in the form of heat. The pressure plates would be taking a small piece of that available 30%, and in the process it would lose a % again via friction in the plate's gearing, hinges, etc. So in the end you're really just harvesting energy from oil, but adding 2 more middlemen in between, one of which wastes 70% of it.
 
I like the people in this thread who think this is a magical machine that creates energy out of thin air.
 
Often times, people without anything beyond a high school education, or liberal arts majors, know more than engineers. In their world, magical devices like this could power America with free energy, along with solar and wind power. :p
 
w1retap said:
Often times, people without anything beyond a high school education, or liberal arts majors, know more than engineers. In their world, magical devices like this could power America with free energy, along with solar and wind power. :p
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I was just guessing. I really don't know. But I like the mathematics of it all. Very intriguing. :D
 
NKDietrich said:
I like the people in this thread who think this is a magical machine that creates energy out of thin air.
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There probably are some here who think like this. But in this particular application, it makes sense since the car has to slow down to a stop anyway. The speed bumps will technically put less pressure on the brakes since the speed bumps will slow the vehicle down. Granted, it'll come at the cost of a little more wear and tear on the suspension.
 
ripken204 said:
so they are finally selling this. it seems useless to me, as in it is just stealing energy from people.
we pay for our cars and the gas in them and the energy from the unnecessary speed bump is coming from our cars. perhaps i do not know the technicalities of this speed bump but the energy must come from the cars either way...
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I'm guessing you aren't old enough to drive or own a car... or a brain for that matter. Wow.
 
DeFex said:
Its not free power, they are just stealing power from the customers.
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And so is every other speed bump, pothole, left/right turn, curve, stop sign, and red light in the country. It's pretty smart of them to install such a device in these. Come on, guy.
 
Replacing existing speed bumps that NEED to be there makes sense but adding new ones for the sake of harvesting power (which unless you're traveling downhill with your foot on the brake seems only waste more of the cars gas) is pointless.
 
GlacierFreeze said:
And so is every other speed bump, pothole, left/right turn, curve, stop sign, and red light in the country. It's pretty smart of them to install such a device in these. Come on, guy.
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If you look at the video, the pressure plate is at the top of the speed bump, so in reality all of the force that's being lost by the car having to break and then climb the bump is not being harvested what so ever, it's merely transferred into heat that's absorbed by the breaks, tires, and bump. By the time the car has reached the pressure plate it's actually expending the least amount of energy during it's travel. If a speed bump is really necessary to be there, the best place to put the pressure plates would be either several meters before the bump, to aid in the breaking process, or on the down slope of the bump where gravity is at least aiding the car somewhat.

To look at it another way, if one were to remove that pressure plate, but keep the metal speed bump as-is, you would in fact have a more overall energy efficient speed bump that still gets the job done in regards to reducing customers' driving speed. I'm guessing though that the Burger King owner would have a very hard time getting a TV interview by showing off his low-grade metal speed bump, and the manufacturer would have a difficult time convincing people to buy them along with a lengthy support contract.
 
Skillless said:
So now we are encouraged to eat at fast food for a greener earth? hehe
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No. What they imply is that if you eat there, you're probably already fat enough to have sufficient mechanical energy to make a difference. :p
 
At our work parking lot, we have to drive over 5 speed bumps in a row. What a PITA. But a tech like this could at least transfer that energy to say, powering the street lamps on the parking lot.
 
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