"More than 150,000 cars drive through our Hillside store alone each year"
I'm trying to focus on the story, but after reading that sentence all I can picture is a horrifying sea of cankles, elbow cleavage, and muffin tops. DEAR GOD MAKE IT STOP
Hmmm. Burger King, I think you're being a little selfish here. Mcdonald's is willing to give us energy while you're trying to take it away from us! Someone needs to get their priorities straight.
I have a Perpetual Motion machine available for BK. I'll sell them at $100 to each of their locations. It runs of unicorn farts and stupidity.
So anyway, yes, they are stealing your energy to power their stuff. This is what happens when you let environmentalists govern. You get stupid ideas that go against every law of physics (the 2nd law of thermodynamics comes into mind here).
@maximum-sienna: WTF, one week you need to insert the paragraph breaks yourself, the next week it does it for you. Seriously, What was wrong with the old commenting system? The new system doesn't even work for me most of the time (if I time pressing the "stop" button just right, I can get the page to load before it craps out my browser).
A life cycle analysis would probably show that the apparatus will never generate more energy than went into making the thing in the first place, and the costing will show that value of electricity generated will never exceed the capital and maintenance costs.
As a demonstration, feel-good project it's quite doable. And there are many ways to use a bump to generate electricity, so I'm curious about just what method they will use. But I have trouble seeing it as any sort of larger energy solution.
If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was starred
If FromaBuick6 has to watch one more Chevy commercial, he's going to punch Howie Long in the face was unstarred
Ok, first off kinetic means moving, your car is a device to move you from point A to point B (or window A to window B in this case) so the kinetic energy they're using is not wasted normally, it serves a very necessary purpose.
Second, this is clean electricity like rinsing off in the Hudson counts as a bath. Granted those cars are normally idling in line, but this is still a gasoline powered Rube Goldberg generator.
If BK wanted to save the environment they'd shut the drive through down all together. They're just trying to save a buck and it'll got straight in their pocket, not off the price of a Whopper. Too often people confuse being Thrifty with being Green. Make no mistake, this is the former.
Maybe if they used a downhill slope, instead of stealing the energy from the cars, they could use the energy from gravity.
Of course that would only work if the customer didn't first have to drive up a hill.
What if they handed out a small hand-crank to each car as they order, and the customer has to crank it a certain number of times before getting to their food? Increase the crank resistance proportional to the number of calories ordered. That way they try to offset the junk they're ingesting.
Order a salad = 5 cranks
3 whoppers, fries and a milkshake = better bring a movie, cuz you're gonna be cranking for a while.
Not a bad idea...and the more Whoppers people eat, the Heavier their cars will get as the year goes on! Soon, the 380 lb dude in the Focus will create enough power to run the shake machine all by himself! WIN!
OK, seems like what I was envisioning (the platforms) is not exactly the same as the video. If there were a drive-thru that was already angled downhill, then you're not "taking" anyone's energy because it would have been wasted as heat in the brakes. But on flat ground, it's definitely coming from the drivers.
Seems like the ideal application of this is anywhere a speed reduction is already needed, since this would partially replace the braking I mentioned above. Approaching toll booths, speed restricted zones, or even in place of speed bumps.
@Ash78: F*cking hell. Even when this new commenting system is working for me (10% of the time), it's still impossible to follow any linear logic in conversation. Apologies for my gripes, but I just don't get the need for constant change.
I've read about these in potential pedestrian applications, but not for cars. Interesting. I have very limited physics background, but basically, isn't this energy provided at the expense of the cars? That is, the cars have to drive up onto a small platform that sinks, if I understand correctly. It's a very, very small amount, but isn't it still just an energy transfer from the driver's fuel tank to the platform?
They're stealing our kinetic energy! Bastards! I intended to use that energy to regeneratively brake my Prius, thereby saving the world from the horrors of The Man, and now they are squandering my ill-gotten kinetic energy on feeding fat people. Can I sue somebody for enough to buy a baby seal a herring burger every day for a year? Oops. Gotta go, I have my appointment to have my old-liberal-guy pony tail trimmed to proper douchebaggery length.
I have to admit, hanging head in shame, I like the Whopper/Double Whopper, though unless the pricing is way low, I don't indulge more than once or twice per annum.
Just thinking about them, I feel my arteries hardening.
Jeez, am I the only one who understands physics? Where do they think the kinetic energy is coming from?
That's right - from moving cars! And do you think even 10% of the people approaching said kinetic energy strip is going to do it right, and let off the brake so their energy gets absorbed by the system? NO!
Idiots. The energy is being stolen from the cars' owners. The drivers will open up the throttles a bit to goose over the bump. And now I ask you, show me a power utility that isn't more efficient, more green than even the newest, greenest, fuel-efficientest car.
@Elhigh:Okay, I've watched the video and maybe I've overreacted a tad. It's possible the action is smooth enough and gradual enough that drivers will use it properly.
07/13/09
I'm trying to focus on the story, but after reading that sentence all I can picture is a horrifying sea of cankles, elbow cleavage, and muffin tops. DEAR GOD MAKE IT STOP
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
So anyway, yes, they are stealing your energy to power their stuff. This is what happens when you let environmentalists govern. You get stupid ideas that go against every law of physics (the 2nd law of thermodynamics comes into mind here).
07/13/09
07/13/09
As a demonstration, feel-good project it's quite doable. And there are many ways to use a bump to generate electricity, so I'm curious about just what method they will use. But I have trouble seeing it as any sort of larger energy solution.
07/13/09
That whole theory behind the economic perpetual-motion machine is fundamentally flawed, of course.
BUT IT'S NEW.
Sigh.
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
very necessarypurpose.Second, this is clean electricity like rinsing off in the Hudson counts as a bath. Granted those cars are normally idling in line, but this is still a gasoline powered Rube Goldberg generator.
If BK wanted to save the environment they'd shut the drive through down all together. They're just trying to save a buck and it'll got straight in their pocket, not off the price of a Whopper. Too often people confuse being Thrifty with being Green. Make no mistake, this is the former.
07/13/09
Of course that would only work if the customer didn't first have to drive up a hill.
What if they handed out a small hand-crank to each car as they order, and the customer has to crank it a certain number of times before getting to their food? Increase the crank resistance proportional to the number of calories ordered. That way they try to offset the junk they're ingesting.
Order a salad = 5 cranks
3 whoppers, fries and a milkshake = better bring a movie, cuz you're gonna be cranking for a while.
07/13/09
07/13/09
Seems like the ideal application of this is anywhere a speed reduction is already needed, since this would partially replace the braking I mentioned above. Approaching toll booths, speed restricted zones, or even in place of speed bumps.
07/13/09
It's like if GM had invented Kaizen.
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
07/13/09
No, cuz then most of their clients (aka fatty fat fats) would eat free!
07/13/09
@01NB: This chick would get money back!
07/13/09
Laugh-out-loud funny, and that's tough, being I couldn't fall asleep until after 3AM.
07/13/09
Click you be gettin'.
I have to admit, hanging head in shame, I like the Whopper/Double Whopper, though unless the pricing is way low, I don't indulge more than once or twice per annum.
Just thinking about them, I feel my arteries hardening.
07/13/09
That's right - from moving cars! And do you think even 10% of the people approaching said kinetic energy strip is going to do it right, and let off the brake so their energy gets absorbed by the system? NO!
Idiots. The energy is being stolen from the cars' owners. The drivers will open up the throttles a bit to goose over the bump. And now I ask you, show me a power utility that isn't more efficient, more green than even the newest, greenest, fuel-efficientest car.
[crickets]
And there you go.
Thanks for stealing some of my fuel, Burger King!
Methinks it's time for a revolution at the BK.
07/13/09
But I doubt it.