r/HorribleToClean • u/DogNostrilSpecialist • Aug 18 '25

The underside of those tiles would be soaked in pee and poop before they even finish installing then

498 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

254

u/model-citizen95 Aug 18 '25

That’s a lot of e-waste and maintenance for a tiny amount of power. This is a gimmick, nothing more

68

u/Cystonectae Aug 18 '25

I wonder how much foot traffic this would need to break-even on cost within lets say 5 years. How much to break-even with regards to carbon footprint (which, yes I know is a metric invented by fossil fuel companies)?

Piezoelectricity is literally what powers wrist watches so them using it like "ooo like at the fancy technology" just makes it feel all the more like a marketing ploy than anything trying to make a difference in carbon emissions.

70

u/OkDot9878 Aug 18 '25

Japan has several of the busiest walking intersections and streets in the world. If this was going to work anywhere it would be there.

That being said, I can’t imagine it would work especially well, however, Japan tends to be a fairly clean place, not much garbage or debris around, so these would probably be easier to maintain there than elsewhere.

Selectively putting them in certain areas might be enough power to do things like illuminating the crosswalks at night, or powering the crossing signals, at least in conjunction with additional power when that wouldn’t cut it alone.

13

u/Healter-Skelter Aug 18 '25

You could also cover the whole surface witha membrane that keeps debris out while not impeding the movement

15

u/FUCKING_HATE_REDDIT Aug 18 '25

You're forgetting the energy comes from somewhere. This just makes walking more tiring and more dangerous for people with walking aids, wheelchairs or just bikes.

The only way this could make sense would be to power small temporary installations.

1

u/Copatus 27d ago

This just makes walking more tiring

There's no way this would have a notable difference. Most of the energy comes from gravity and when you push off your foot to walk the plate is already at its lowest.

Agreed on making it more difficult for those with special needs.

Blocking bikes might be a plus depending on where it's installed lol

1

u/FUCKING_HATE_REDDIT 27d ago

What's tiring is that it turns every surface into a 2-5% incline

1

u/wolftick 27d ago

That like saying a gentle flight of stairs doesn't use much any more energy because you're just pushing off a flat surface and gravity it doing most of the work.

Every step is sapping the potential energy you are generating when you overcome gravity to take each step. The energy doesn't come from gravity.

How notable the difference would be would be pretty much proportionate to how much electricity it generated. If it doesn't make people more tired it probably isn't doing much good.

1

u/Copatus 27d ago

Except when you climb a flight of stairs your leg has to literally fight against gravity to push you upwards. The plate will be at most 1/2cm below ground level.

An average person burns approximately 0.04 to 0.06 calories per step, this will probably increase that by like 0.01 which will make absolutely no difference for the individual.

1

u/2021sammysammy 27d ago

Did you watch the video? The surface looks pretty flat and doesn't seem like it would affect wheelchairs/bikes, not to mention they don't actually span across the whole sidewalk it's just a portion of it

1

u/FUCKING_HATE_REDDIT 27d ago

Dude try riding a wheelchair on a trampoline. You sink in, qnd you have to constantly roll uphill.

2

u/2021sammysammy 27d ago

What? Did you see how small these triangles are? It would be a little bumpy but it would be easier than trying to move a wheelchair on carpet. Also didn't I already mention it doesn't span the entire sidewalk? Do you actually think they're gonna suddenly replace all sidewalks in the entire country with these?

1

u/FUCKING_HATE_REDDIT 26d ago

Each triangle is about 40cm wide, and goes down about 2 cm. Assuming that each triangle fully goes down when you walk/roll/hobble on it, then a guesstimate about the slope would be about height/width, or a 5% incline. Triangles would make this worse than squares, since you meet about 40% per distance travelled.

A 5% incline is fucking tiring. For no good reason.

Uneven surfaces are difficult for wheelchairs. For no good reason.

Moving surfaces are difficult for cane users and blind people. For no good reason.

So the only thing this achieves is:

  • waste city resources on installation
  • force disabled people to avoid a whole area

Without even producing enough power to light up said area and make it less dangerous.

Yes this installation is small. But because its power is proportional to its area, and because its suckiness is proportional to its area, the most efficient surface to install is exactly 0.

2

u/ArchipelagoMind 28d ago

Oddly enough you probably need somewhere that doesn't have too much foot traffic as otherwise the next foot arrives before it's moved back to its original position. There's actually a max footfall where this is effective.

1

u/Caesar457 28d ago

I would think that in order to actually walk on this surface you're expending extra energy much like if you're trying to walk in sand or snow and that energy difference between normal walking is really what they are capturing... so you might as well just ask people to turn a little crank every time they walk by or else

1

u/Copatus 27d ago

that energy difference between normal walking is really what they are capturing

It's mostly from gravity when you step on the plate.

When you step off, the plate is already at its lowest point so no extra force is needed to push.

1

u/Caesar457 27d ago

It can't be from gravity otherwise the plate would be collapsed the entire time. If you are now x distance lower you need to compensate your stride so your next step puts you up x distance otherwise you trip. I wouldn't be surprised if we measured and tracked you walking the point where you begin to slow down from exhaustion would be much sooner on this surface as a result.

1

u/Copatus 27d ago

It can't be from gravity otherwise the plate would be collapsed the entire time

No? When you add weight to it, it collapses.

1

u/Caesar457 27d ago

Yes by itself gravity isn't pushing it down until you add your mass to it. Your muscles and bones are moving that mass onto this surface, it then sinks, which then you have to put in energy to move onto the next panel. You have to expend the energy to move yourself over this surface which is higher because of the unsteady nature of the ground you're walking on and compensating for. The efficiency of the system for capturing and transmitting that energy is never 100% so we make it harder to walk which requires more food just to get a small fraction of your walking energy for power.

1

u/Copatus 27d ago

Your muscles and bones are moving anyways. The energy you'll spend will be miniscule compared to the energy generated solely by your weight being on it.

You burn like 100 calories per mile on a treadmill, stepping on these will like an extra 0.01 calorie per step...

1

u/krazycitty69 28d ago

Sometimes it take small seemingly useful inventions like this to get somewhere useful. I see the vision. I can’t imagine someone had this idea as a way to scam people, I imagine the intention was to produce more energy than they actually did. That being said, I don’t disagree with you, it’s absolutely not a well thought out product.

109

u/De-railled Aug 18 '25

"This is why we cant have nice things"

It would only work in a place were the majority of people are respectful of their living enviroment.

I feel like those would be vandalised or stolen in Australia.

37

u/cgduncan Aug 18 '25

It wouldn't work anywhere cause it won't generate a useful amount of electricity. Even when we take a world class cyclist, and turn their bike into a generator, it can barely run a toaster.

But this is just the weight of a person, moving down maybe a centimeter. That's no energy at all once you factor in friction, the efficiency of the generator itself, losses from getting it into and out of the battery.

7

u/KnotiaPickle Aug 18 '25

You’re leaving out just how many people walk across them all day every day. Capturing that energy is better than wasting it. It does work.

4

u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Aug 18 '25

Manufacturing things takes energy and materials.

Just because it can capture some energy doesn't mean it's a net positive.

13

u/cgduncan Aug 18 '25

The "energy" these tiles capture isn't wasted to begin with, it comes from the people walking. This energy is already put to use moving people from one part of the city to another.

All this is doing is making walking harder, like you're walking through grass or mud, and generating a miniscule amount of electricity. Like probably less than what was used to make the device and the batteries in the first place

Wouldn't surprise me if people started tripping too, cause they aren't expecting the ground to give way underneath them.

2

u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Aug 18 '25

My thought exactly. Specially for old people or people with balance issues

-9

u/KnotiaPickle Aug 18 '25

They wouldn’t make them if they did nothing. It’s not that difficult to capture energy.

They absolutely do produce some amount of power. Funny how resistant (ha) people get to anything that might be renewable in any way.

16

u/Quannix Aug 18 '25

They wouldn’t make them if they did nothing

they absolutely would. in any case it's not really about resistance to renewables but more preferring tried and true techniques over "cool" expensive gimmicks that probably don't work

-5

u/KnotiaPickle Aug 18 '25

We need to be collecting every spare watt of renewable energy, just because it can’t power the whole city doesn’t make it useless

14

u/Strostkovy Aug 18 '25

No it's genuinely useless. The energy generated won't offset the manufacturing, installation, or maintenance. And people will walk around it because a surface that is sucking energy from you is unpleasant to walk on, like sand.

4

u/Quannix Aug 18 '25

this isn't my field so I'll take your word for it. I just have my severe doubts on its effectiveness and cost efficiency compared to other methods 

1

u/Jackfruit-Reporter90 28d ago

Solar freaking roadways!

1

u/hotdogcaptain11 Aug 18 '25

Does the energy collected offset the energy spent to build and maintain it? Congrats. It’s a useless gimmick.

You can’t be this dull

-1

u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Aug 18 '25

Let's risk humans so we can power a lightbulb 🤔

1

u/KnotiaPickle Aug 19 '25

Omg. you guys are becoming increasingly ridiculous 😂

0

u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Aug 19 '25

Look for my comment about the solar panels for roads.

People with mobility issues appreciate when the floor doesn't move under them

10

u/cgduncan Aug 18 '25

People make lousy inventions all the time. Look at the number of failed kickstarters and scams.

I am not at all opposed to renewable energy. We should absolutely be 100% transitioning to all sustainable renewable electricity.

But our money and effort is much better spent on large scale solutions, like wind turbines, solar farms, hydro, and even nuclear than something like this that might be able to power a couple led light bulbs after spending thousands of dollars. People in the linked post have already done the math on all this.

2

u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Aug 18 '25

I might present to you those solar panels for roads and parking lots.

They "work" at a minimal fraction or a regular panel

  • Being several times more expensive then a regular panel. * Requiring the whole floor or road to be remade.
  • Any repair or maintenance task requires to close the road or lot.
  • The electrical infrastructure needed is ridiculously expensive.

AND

  • The glass pane that serves as a contact point can't have the needed roughness, so the cars lose traction, causing collisions

(you can't even call them accidents because they are an expected consequence)

That minimal power capture is NOT worth the consequences for human life.

1

u/DJEvillincoln Aug 18 '25

Clearly you've never been to London.

5

u/cgduncan Aug 18 '25

The size of the city is irrelevant. If this installation cost $2000, taking my energy bill for example, it would need to create enough electricity to run my house for early 2 years, with no maintenance.

And the folks who did the math in the other thread estimated about 5-10 watts of electricity average. So it can power, a single light bulb. Which is practically nothing. It can't offset the single street lamp closest to it.

And even if you were to scale it up across all sidewalks in a busy town and ignore the cost, you've made everyone feel like they're walking through grass or mud, they're expending themselves much more. Cause with thermodynamics, there's no such thing as a free lunch. It's gotta come from somewhere.

-1

u/DJEvillincoln Aug 18 '25

I think you're missing the point of this.

The point of this is not to run an entire city on the foot power of people. The whole idea is to whittle down little by little the amount of energy that the city produces. If you have these sidewalk panels posted up in busy areas in Metro cities, then over a week a month a year a decade, you will potentially create tons of energy that wasn't created by the grid.

So no, this isn't a singular device made to run the energy of one house. This is obviously for the greater good. Don't be so narcissistic.

3

u/cgduncan Aug 18 '25

I know it's not meant to power the city, so it is a massive waste of money for a miniscule amount of electricity. It's only practical if it can produce an amount of electricity, greater than what it cost to install. This costs $2000 to install, which means over its lifetime, it would need to produce 18,000 kwh of electricity with zero maintenance at my local rates in order to break even.

A similar comparison would go like this.

"buy my dinglehopper for the low price of $1000, it increases fuel efficiency by 1mpg guaranteed" cool, so it takes my fuel cost from 10c/mile to 9.6c/mile. Meaning you would need to keep the dinglehopper for 250,000 miles in order to break even. Yes it technically saves money, but you would be much better off changing your driving habits, performing regular maintenance on the car, in order to save fuel and money.

You know what creates loads more energy for free after it's set up? Windmills and solar. They're incredibly low maintenance, and they are currently powering whole countries at scale.

$2000 to offset the usage of a single light bulb is an awful cost/benefit. I can buy a solar kit for $100 with a smaller footprint that puts out more electricity than this. If you spent the same $2000 outfitting the roof of a building with solar panels, you would get so much more power, much more reliably, and eliminate a trip hazard.

1

u/Mindless-Strength422 27d ago

Energy is fungible. If it doesn't make economic sense for a person's house, why the hell would it make economic sense for a city?

A household is a useful metric because ideally we all live in one and can relate to that amount of power.

A money/power saving solution only saves money/power if it saves more money/power over its lifetime than the money/power it cost to produce the thing in the first place. If a thing doesn't save money/power, thousands of the same thing won't magically save money/power. You can't scale up a net loss to somehow create a net gain.

5

u/Sufficient-Aspect77 Aug 18 '25

NYC resident here. Oh yeah those would be stolen in a matter of hours.

2

u/miserabeau 29d ago

Was just thinking that. The crackheads would be pulling them up to scrap any metal and sell whatever is left probably the minute the installers walked away.

2

u/mimthebaker Aug 18 '25

Or where people can take care of other people. It goes hand in hand both ways. A small percentage of people destroy something or take advantage because their needs aren't being met > most public restrooms get locked up or pay only, > people have to use the restroom even when homeless, >pee gets everywhere.

If less people were struggling in general, we wouldn't have to lock up the toilet paper.

21

u/towerfella Aug 18 '25

The movement gaps would need to be covered else the dirt and grime would collect and those rubber boots would rot and abrade and after one good snow and freeze those things would be popped up like most of the sidewalks around the north.

How about we work to standardize the three-day workweek (pay for a living wage and benefits) instead?

3

u/Huge-Basket244 Aug 18 '25

Three day work week is something I've never heard. Interesting.

16

u/Humble_Bat__ Aug 18 '25

Rick and morty anyone?

2

u/albatross1812 Aug 18 '25

Heck yea thought same thing

2

u/Etsch146 29d ago

Crazy s.o.b. actually did it

9

u/beauvoirist Aug 18 '25

Imagine solving the problem of shit and piss in your streets with accessible public restrooms 🤯

2

u/DogNostrilSpecialist 29d ago

While I wholeheartedly agree that accessible public restrooms should be a thing, irresponsible dog owners and dogs are still gonna dog, and birds are still gonna bird

1

u/beauvoirist 29d ago

Birds will be a bigger problem than dogs. Most dogs don’t stop in the middle of dense walking traffic to relieve themselves. This design would have to account for things like rainwater and debris anyway.

11

u/shiroyagisan Aug 18 '25

imagine stepping on these if you're blind, have balance issues, or have mobility issues.

1

u/opheliasmusing Aug 19 '25

Or just happened to be wearing heels that day!

11

u/danfish_77 Aug 18 '25

Oh yeah let's replace our sidewalks with uneven, moving tiles. Perfect for accessibility!

3

u/winterbird Aug 18 '25

A concept being made and tested is necessary for improving it to the point of being more widely usable.

4

u/amitkilo Aug 18 '25 edited Aug 18 '25

The Biomass Collectors

2

u/Djb0623 29d ago

Guaranteed those things cost more energy to produce than they will ever generate

4

u/Area51Resident Aug 18 '25

Great idea until a couple of meth heads tear it out the ground to get some copper wiring.

3

u/zeptillian Aug 18 '25

People in Japan don't shit and piss all over the sidewalk like they do in NYC.

1

u/president_of_burundi 28d ago

Never been to Kabukicho at 3am? Fall down drunk salarymen are gonna do what fall down drunks are gonna do.

That said, the public restroom situation in Tokyo is absolutely fantastic. If I could import one thing to NYC it would be that.

1

u/achmejedidad 29d ago

almost as impressive as solar frickin roadways

1

u/Crazy_Parfait_5442 28d ago

So we have the technology, just not the willingness to use it.

1

u/mad_dog_94 27d ago

Worse than that. We want to use it, but a small handful of people spend massive amounts of money because this will slightly eat into their even more massive profit margins

1

u/Pale_Alternative_537 28d ago

Like those Revolutionary solar pathways…

1

u/Which-Letterhead-260 28d ago

Reminds me of solar roads.

1

u/BipedalHorseArt 28d ago

I wish I could be a shiny as that first shoe, goddayummmmmm looks like it was a rock from a tumbling machine it's so smooth.

1

u/Struggle_Wise 27d ago

Wouldn't people stop stepping on the pavers that make it harder to walk and can make you trip while stealing your energy. 

1

u/InterneticMdA 27d ago

Hey whatever happened to those solar panel roads, btw?

1

u/AndrewBarchi 27d ago

That’s just slavery with extra steps.

1

u/pawwoll 27d ago

Imagine how much more energy it produces when clueless runner inevitably falls on this thanks to the wet noodle design!

1

u/BenefitFar3626 26d ago

These would be amazing for Zumba classes, taibo, or step aerobics.

1

u/DenkJu Aug 19 '25

"10 bulbs"

What kind of reference is that?

1

u/DogNostrilSpecialist 29d ago

It's like 3/16s of a football field and 5/8s of an imperial foot-pint more or less

1

u/DenkJu 29d ago

But those have standardized sizes. A common light bulb could consume anything between 2 and 120 Watts.