zomg! yes, your number two could be a number one choice for easy energy! (ener <– never outgrew potty humour)
this is brilliant (yet slightly icky) o_O
harnessing the kinetic energy of flushing toilets in skyscrapers uses exactly the same concept as hydroelectric dams! (see this article)
potential energy of water is converted to kinetic energy as it moves from a higher position to a lower position. this is true for rivers, tides, waves (deep water ocean swells can be harnessed by special buoys), and even toilets!
i don’t care how serious a person you are, talking about harnessing power from flushes is fun and an easy way to grab a student’s attention! *yay for the inner child* =D
so guess what will be added to the observation deck of our tall building in Enclave Harbour? yep, a bathroom!
you can even figure out the energy of a flush!
our building is one metre taller than the current world’s tallest building (in Dubai) and let’s say our power generating toilet (PGT?) is at 900 metres above sea level and has a water conserving flush of one litre (one kilogram)
plugging that into the equation where potential energy (U) is equal to a mass (m) through a height (h) accelerated by gravity (g), or U = mhg, will give you
1 KG X 900 metres X 9.8 metres per second squared = 8,820 Joules!
okay, so what is this in something a normal person can understand?
well 8,820 Joules is 2.1 calories of energy and if that toilet was flushed three times a day for a year that would mean 2,100 kilocalories (food calories)
think about how long you’d have to be on an elliptical to burn 2,100 Calories and that is the same amoount of energy!
who knew flushing a toilet could be so environmental? =)
beats doing 4 hours on the elliptical!
[...] will illustrate the power of high rise wastewater and how it can be harnessed by turbines (see my spot last week) and also be used as a discussion point for architecural considerations of tall buildings such as [...]
phallic? nope, just a tall building at i live in science land
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[...] in building an example of harnessing kinetic energy that many students are able to relate to - flushing a toilet! In true Ener fashion, this commode is atop a building that is one metre taller than the current [...]
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[...] 901 metre tall building with toilet power! [...]
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