Ideas ideas ideas

[Villalba]

Okay, energy ideas.

First, i truly think, that the answer is under our noses and we have not gotten a smart way to use it. For example, people waste energy down the drain, such as well fesces. I heard that if it goes through a well enough process then it can be transform into natural gas, such that can be use to power their homes. What if, instead we use our fesces to power our homes, i know sounds disgusting, but it could work, the use of methane gas.

Also there is a saying that energy cannot be created not even destroy, what if the answer is also under our noses, or more likely over to be more litheral. Oil power plants cause pollution, which causes green house gases, what if there is a way to get energy out of the gas.

Finally i never saw the problem with nuclear power plants, nuclear power is the power of the future, what if we make our cars drive on nuclear power, we could transform the oil companies into nuclear battery companies, in a matter of time cars will drive on nuclear power. Of course there is the matter of the sudden rise on price of cars, but in a short term it will serve a benefit. When people don't have to pay $4.50 dollars a gallon every 10 days.

[Imperial]

This is an interesting thread...

As far as human feces go, I don't think humans generate enough waste to power a home?

And nuclear powered cars? I'm not even sure what a nuclear battery would even be. Nuclear fission generates heat that creates steam that powers turbines, generating power. Our nuclear power plants, submarines & aircraft carriers are kept under lock & key. If every vehicle had a nuclear power plant within it, we'd be spreading not only nuclear material, but technology everywhere leading to nuclear weapons in the hands of God only knows. Additionally, what do you do with the spent nuclear fuel? The spent fuel will be radioactive for thousands of years.

[Arcadian Empire]

*Arcadian ponders Uranium-235 around 2ft from him

What about the gamma rays?!

[Villalba]

Well, yeah radioactivity will cause one hell of a problem.
Also there is the fact as to where people will find all of that radioactive material, such as uranium. Like oil it won't last.

But now, all energy is wasted, even solar energy in which it will be gone in 5 million years from now, when it reaches the state of Red Giant, but that is a problem left for the 500000 generations to come.

[Zagato]

There's always used, strained vegetable oil to power diesels. Could work, we all eat a lot of fast food.

[Imperial]

In 5 million years, the earth will be destroyed or humanity will have died out or humans will have gone elsewhere.

[The Corporal]

I'll stop myself before I go on my patented Nuclear Power Tirade (but not before saying that there is gobs more thorium than uranium, fuel reprocessing could reclaim a lot of fissionable material, we'd only need to truly worry about the heat evolution from the waste for about 100 years if the fuel is reprocessed correctly, and it truly is the only viable solution for the next 50-100 years). I will say that the thermodynamics and reaction kinetics prevent us from getting any more energy out of waste gases - carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide - they are already at a low-energy state (meaning we'd need more energy to separate the carbon/sulfur/nitrogen from the oxygen than we'd get out of it again).

The simplest way for everyone to save some money is to get a thermal-solar water heater. It's a black box you bolt to your roof that, even when compared to natural gas heaters, pays for itself in only four years.

Another method (disclaimer: I'm not as well-informed on this, I heard a coworker talking about one of his friend's neighbors) is to implement geothermal heating/cooling: you drill a hole into the water table and put a closed-loop pipe system filled with more water. Since the water table at those depths underground is generally colder than the air temperature in the summer and warmer in the winter (it sure is in Wisconsin), you need a lot less energy to heat and cool your home (e.g., the closed-loop pipe and water table are at 55 degrees, heating your home from 55 degrees instead of 10 degrees in the winter takes less energy and cooling your home from 100 degrees to 65 degrees takes less energy when you have a constant 55 degree heat sink).

Also, turn the damn lights off when you're not using them. Don't start your car 10 minutes before you leave just so it's nice and cool (or warm) when you get in. Turn the heat down and either man up or put on an extra layer. The little things count when everyone does them.

[Treehugger95]

it bothers me that everyone is so worried about running out of fuel, if you think about it, this whole problem is our fault. WE drive the huge cars and have the big houses and have boats. If people were not so selfish everyone would be happier. if oil company owners were not so selfish they would be willing to sell gas for less money, and if that happened than food prices would go down, and them other prices would go down and people would be much happier.

[Pimptastic]

a 'green house gas' is one that is roughly 2 miles straight up on the last layers of our atmosphere

problems with collecting this are

A - no planes have been able to preform this high up to fly let alone collect gases and come back to land

B - no structures this tall exist it would take not only the upwards of a mile and then some but also foundations of half a mile or more and teams of builders in oxygen masks in sub zero temperatures building upwards constantly for a crazy amount of time

C - the tallest building in the world is said to 'sway' a few foot in the wind when your at the very top so anything made would have to be wind proof which is very hard to do so the base has to be wider to help stability giving you what will be a huge pyramid

D - a huge pyramid will take far more resources to build than it will produce and also be a crash hazard to planes at about 3/4 of a mile square where planes are flying

[Megamind]

Windmills, solar cells, solar water heaters, geothermic heating, water power etc. and then the problem is solved :P

We don't need your stinking nuclear power and fossil fuel!

[IronsightSniper]

I only understood the nuclear power part.
That is very true. Nuclear power produces energy on a scale similar to oil.
Also, it creates no pollution.
The only thing the public find bad about nuclear power is that a nuclear meltdown could occur and nuclear meltdowns are very bad, damage to environment, people's health, etc.
If we maybe put all the Nuclear Power plants in like deserts with little or no life, and no civilian population for 100 miles, that may make it safer.

[Megamind]

you do realize that there aren't desserts all over the world right? Where would us Europeans put our nuclear plants?

[IronsightSniper]

you do realize that there aren't desserts all over the world right? Where would us Europeans put our nuclear plants?

Uh...buy our energy, thus making the dollar stronger?
:awesome:

[Megamind]

you're paying the costs of sending the energy over here right? :P

[IronsightSniper]

Hell no :P

[leninrocks244]

Windmills, solar cells, solar water heaters, geothermic heating, water power etc. and then the problem is solved :P

We don't need your stinking nuclear power and fossil fuel!

x2

[Villalba]

How about this, why don't we just let civilization solve things out.

If not, then i will give the weedo to the legion members, before they blow my brains out of the patio.

[IronsightSniper]

We are civilization.

[The Corporal]

you do realize that there aren't desserts all over the world right? Where would us Europeans put our nuclear plants?

Err......Luxembourg? There aren't any people there, right? :D

[Villalba]

Can imagine, every European country suddenly going to Luxembourg to build nuclear power plants. Thats got to be one hell of a tea party there. Except for Ireland, they will build a bar instead.

[Kinofp]

I heard somewhere that they might build a 3,000 ft tall Solar updraft tower in Australia

Here's a link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower

Im sure that would generate a lot of energy (considering it uses solar and wind technologies)

[leninrocks244]

Can imagine, every European country suddenly going to Luxembourg to build nuclear power plants. Thats got to be one hell of a tea party there. Except for Ireland, they will build a bar instead.

No..... Luxembourg is full of Frenchies. They'd build a Cheese and Wine shop.

[Zagato]

Canada is a very large country with a spread out population. I'm sure we'd be happy to set up a few hundred nuclear powerplants in the northern territories and several more hydro-electric dams near the south. We'd have no problem selling you all this fresh Canadian energy. :D

[FreeMason]

Okay, energy ideas.

First, i truly think, that the answer is under our noses and we have not gotten a smart way to use it. For example, people waste energy down the drain, such as well fesces. I heard that if it goes through a well enough process then it can be transform into natural gas, such that can be use to power their homes. What if, instead we use our fesces to power our homes, i know sounds disgusting, but it could work, the use of methane gas.

Also there is a saying that energy cannot be created not even destroy, what if the answer is also under our noses, or more likely over to be more litheral. Oil power plants cause pollution, which causes green house gases, what if there is a way to get energy out of the gas.

Finally i never saw the problem with nuclear power plants, nuclear power is the power of the future, what if we make our cars drive on nuclear power, we could transform the oil companies into nuclear battery companies, in a matter of time cars will drive on nuclear power. Of course there is the matter of the sudden rise on price of cars, but in a short term it will serve a benefit. When people don't have to pay $4.50 dollars a gallon every 10 days.

If there were nuclear powered cars, wouldn't car crashes kinda...ya know...destroy entire cities?

[The Corporal]

If there were nuclear powered cars, wouldn't car crashes kinda...ya know...destroy entire cities?

* The Corporal lights himself on fire. Please tell me you're not asserting that a small nuclear fission reactor=tactical nuclear warhead. Please, oh please. If you're referring to a release of radioactive material, then I can understand your concern.

That being said, if nuclear-powered cars were to actually become a reality (won't happen, but I'll go there anyway) the reactors would be heavily armored enough that the risks would be seriously decreased by the manufacturers - otherwise the cars wouldn't sell. I think the real problem with making a nuclear-powered car a reality wouldn't be in containing radioactivity in case of an accident as much as containing radioactivity during normal operation. Lead is the only cheap and effective material for blocking radiation. Lead unfortunately is also really heavy. In fact, all radiation-blocking materials are really heavy (this is assuming that we are keeping the size of the reactor to something that would fit under the hood of your average car, otherwise we could use distance instead of outright shielding to decrease exposure). That decreases efficiency, which would lead to lower fuel economy or more dangerous operation.

This little thought experiment quite obviously glosses over the greater concerns with nuclear cars, mainly that radioactive material would be a blowtorch away from being put into a dirty bomb (even though doing so would easily kill the person doing it ten or a hundred times over). Nobody is willing to take that kind of risk...

[Hubb]

* The Corporal lights himself on fire.

This made me lol for about five minutes. :awesome:

:D

[The Arbiter]

Nuclear power wouldn't work, it's too dangerous.

[leninrocks244]

Finally i never saw the problem with nuclear power plants, nuclear power is the power of the future, what if we make our cars drive on nuclear power, we could transform the oil companies into nuclear battery companies, in a matter of time cars will drive on nuclear power. Of course there is the matter of the sudden rise on price of cars, but in a short term it will serve a benefit. When people don't have to pay $4.50 dollars a gallon every 10 days.

Not to be rude, but that has to be the dumbest idea I've ever heard on here. Just look at how many car crashes happen in the US alone. It would be like giving an ICBM to everybody for $40,000. It would be a nuclear holocaust if that was to ever happen.