Ideas within topic services,construction: (click suns to rate or comment on ideas)
| 1 |
| Shared Business: Since restaurants pay rent all day yet may only fill up at lunch, open a restaurant only during lunch and use the space for another business the rest of the day to share the rent. Would work best where rent is high and a major cost. | |
| 2 |
| Stores should have a small strip of one-way mirrors around the inside, where an armed guard could hide, even if a robber knew he was there, somewhere. A thief couldn't take hostages since he wouldn't know where the guard was (he might be behind him). | |
| 3 |
| Office cleaner's duties could extend to turning off non-critical electrical appliances (computer monitors, lights), thereby reducing that office's green footprint. | |
| 4 |
| For children to wash their hands, one sink in every public restroom should be placed low, with the faucet closer to the front edge. Now I always need to pick up my child awkwardly, as if giving him an "airplane ride", to let him wash his hands. | |
| 5 |
| 'Porta Potties' should contain wall mounted vending machine for dispensing handi wipes (wet naps). | |
| 6 |
| In big cranes, a series of telescopic, concentric, cylindrical buckets filled with water or sand from site can compensate for 20% - 40% of the counter weights. Thus the purchase & transportation cost of the big cranes can be reduced. | |
| 7 |
| Why are school buildings reminiscent of Gothic, Medieval, and Prison architecture? If you want kids to be bright and creative, let them learn and develop in unique and colorful buildings that combine technology with nature. Hire some new architects. | |
| 8 |
| To make assembling flat pack furniture easier, put correctly placed, colour/shape coded, low-tack stickers directly on the pieces during manufacture. Putting the furniture together would be made easier by matching the shapes/colours of the stickers. | |
| 9 |
| Lay expandable polystyrene foam on roofs to insulate and reflect off heat and sunlight in very hot countries during summer. Also putting scrapped pieces of white ceramic tiles on the roofs with white cement could be a very low cost way to cool buildings. | |
| 10 |
| Grocery stores, drug stores and department stores should offer 'REACHERS' for wheelchair-bound customers and short people. | |
| 11 |
| Close roof vents on large manufacturing facilities in winter to conserve energy costs. Open in summer to let heat out. Sounds like a simple practice but some managers won't pay for the manpower. I feel it is a good investment. | |
| 12 |
| Design buildings to use dimensional lumber to reduce the measuring and cutting. So, if plywood and underlayment come in 1x3 m pieces, houses should be 9 m or 12 m long. (I think I should credit Rex Roberts for this advice). | |
| 13 |
| Install disinfected towelettes in toilets. Useful for cleaning hands, wiping seats, holding the catch. Would save water, towels or dryers and would certainly be more hygenic. Could be disposed of in an automatic burner. | |
| 14 |
| Rain water can be collected from building roofs to store in underground tanks. Washing clothes, watering plants in the garden or washing our cars can be done with that water. It may even be fit for drinking if it were purified. | |
| 15 |
| Cities make transition to 40 buildings or so. Super structures. That way we solve urban sprawl, population problems, consumption levels of energy and water and get rid of inefficiencies of populations commuting. Elevators to work. | |
| 16 |
| To prevent tornadoes or hurricanes/typhoons from blowing out windows and roofs due to their low pressure, design buildings with vents allowing rapid outflow of air. | |
| 17 |
| Use adhesive bondable rigid polyolefin pipes for shallow and medium depth borewells as substitutes for rigid PVC pipes. These pipes are lead-free and vinyl chloride-free. | |
| 18 |
| Small air destratifiers can balance ceiling-floor temperatures for businesses & home owners to save on heating and AC. (energy conservation) | |
| 19 |
| Put aircon thru the sofa or other furniture. This solves problem of having sweaty backs on sofas. Most air conditioner air is wasted to cool the room. | |
| 20 |
| Burglar alarms now can also automatically notify police. Why not connect them so that they automatically dial our mobile phones (when someone breaks in) to play a pre-recorded message, declaring a security breach. | |
| 21 |
| To save money, USA or European companies could scan and email/fax sketches of engineering drawings to Indian firms for conversion to proper engineering drawings with AUTO CAD. (outsource,outsourcing) | |
| 22 |
| The black & white colors of zebras get unevenly hot in the sun and induce localised air flow to cool them. Similarly the roof top water tanks or outside walls of buildings in hot countries can be painted in zebra/chequered colors to reduce heating. | |
| 23 |
| Barbers/hairdressers could make their customers more comfortable during a hair wash if they used a padded sink instead of hard ceramic to let them rest their necks and heads. | |
| 24 |
| Hourly rental rooms for sleep and quiet in highly populated shopping malls. A place to relax and take a time-out from the day of crazy shopping, running around between errands. Home might be too far. | |
| 25 |
| Dead people should be buried vertically. This will save a lot of space and will help in areas where there is a problem of congested burial grounds. | |
| 26 |
| Hotel rooms should have a notice on their doors to encourage people to close their room doors quietly during the period of 10pm – 8am. This would hopefully act as a courtesy to fellow hotel guests to allow them to sleep a little less disturbed. | |
| 27 |
| A group of interior decorators and carpenters should work together. The decorators, together with the carpenters, would design the interior again, literally. This way the customer's home would be truly personalized. | |
| 28 |
| To save electricity in offices and other buildings, put a timer on light switches to turn them off after 12 hours. Workers will turn on lights when arriving in the morning, and the lights will turn off 12 hours later, after everyone has gone home. | |
| 29 |
| Non-Stop Traffic Tube Interchanges. An idea for traffic from all directions to proceed straight, diverging right or left and "U" turning in all road interchanges without stopping for traffic lights. | |
| 30 |
| Do not put "Push" or "Pull" signs on doors that open both ways. This seems obvious, but I have seen many such uselessly- (and confusingly-) labeled doors. | |
| 31 |
| Some taps have a sensor so that whenever someone puts his/her hand under it, water starts to flow. As the hand is removed water stops flowing. Install these taps to reduce the wastage of water. | |
| 32 |
| Plant native, desert plants around buildings in dry climates, rather than try to plant humid climate grass and flowering bushes. | |
| 33 |
| To keep mosquitoes out, use roll-up screens on windows and sliding doors. They fit snugly in their own frame and roll up or sideways into a hidden roll after a tug on a string. | |
| 34 |
| To avoid falls, be sure to have natural light in bathrooms (windows, skylights, or "sun pipes"). This way, folks would have light to find their way even if the power is out during the day. | |
| 35 |
| Each housing tract could have a closed-in park with a chute to each house. Each one would be set with an appointment time so that dogs can take themselves for a walk and play in the park without the owner or restricting leash. | |
| 36 |
| Open a nightclub in a 747, and fly it once a year. | |
| 37 |
| Remote control porch lights. | |
| 38 |
| Many people are lazy and take elevators to go up just one floor. To encourage energy conservation and healthy exercise, charge people the real cost for using an elevator, using a coin or smart cash card machine on the door. (electricity) | |