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Urinal Turbines

 harness the power of pee!
  (+15, -5)(+15, -5)
(+15, -5) 		  [vote for,
against]

Small turbines in urinals to generate power.
—mrthingy, Oct 27 2000

(?) Or this http://www.iop.org/.../0960-1317/15/9/S06
[mrthingy, Mar 24 2007]

(?) Eco-Friendly Turbines generate power from a flushing toilet http://www.ecofrien...-a-flushing-toilet/
"Researchers have announced plans for a new device that can use the energy generated during flushing of the toilet as an alternative power source." [angel, Mar 07 2008]

Drain of Terror Drain_20of_20Terror
Shameless self-promotion [imaginality, Mar 08 2008]

Concept Urinals Aim to Harness the Power of Pee http://www.ohgizmo....s-the-power-of-pee/
[mrthingy, Aug 12 2013]

San Francisco experiments with planter-based public pee stations http://www.mnn.com/...er-based-public-pee
[mrthingy, Mar 01 2014]

Urine turned into sustainable power source for electronic devices https://www.science...04/160418095918.htm
[mrthingy, Apr 20 2016]


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Annotation:







       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.   

       It probably makes more sense to put large turbines in sewers than to put small turbines in urinals.
—egnor, Oct 28 2000
   

       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.
—Monkfish, Oct 28 2000
   

       Hook the turbine up to a radioshack panel meter and people can measure how powerful they pee.
—Amishman35, May 16 2001
   

       I take it the turbine will be covered, and the leads well-insulated? Otherwise you're asking for some very painful consequences.
—nick_n_uit, May 20 2001
   

       and with all this excess power you could plug in your cellphone or pda while taking a leak!
—Mr Machine, May 25 2004
   

       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".   

       Then just hook the generator up to the big lever.
—MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 24 2007
   

       I pity the guy who has to service such a device.
—acurafan07, Mar 24 2007
   

       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!
—the dog's breakfast, Mar 25 2007
   

       Then you could equip the urine tower with a windmill on top, and piezo steps to really get things going.
—ye_river_xiv, Sep 03 2007
   

       Piss pour power [mrthingy], piss pour. [+]
—theleopard, Sep 07 2007
   

       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.   

       Or you could generate electricity and use it to power the automatic flush valve.
—Livingfishguy, Sep 08 2007
   

       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!
—canoro, Sep 09 2007
   

       //you could generate a good amount of electricity// No you couldn't. Why do people never stop and do the elementary sums?   

       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.   

       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.   

       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.
—MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 09 2007
   

       All piss and vinegar, really. Forcing any greater head would reduce anyone prostrate.
—4whom, Oct 30 2007
   

       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.
—quantum_flux, Oct 31 2007
   

       ".....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')
—MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 08 2008
   

       If all the damned thing could do was to light up an LED while whilst we peed, we men would be satisfied.
—normzone, Apr 20 2016
   


 

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