'Crowd Farm' Converts Footsteps into Electricity

'Crowd Farm' Converts Footsteps into Electricity

www.livescience.com

Two MIT students have found the next new source of energy: you
A new technology developed by the graduate students would take the energy generated by human movement, such as walking or jumping, in crowded settings and turn it into electricity.
The so-called "Crowd Farm" would work something like this: A responsive sub-flooring system would be placed under, say, the platform of a subway terminal. The blocks that make up the system would depress slightly under the force of human footsteps.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is a fantastic idea.
Strategically placed "crowd farms"such as the suggested subway, concerts ect could possibly help to take alot of stress off of the already over stressed electrical grids .
It would be interesting to know how practical it would be to actually install theses generation systems throughout the infrastructurer.

www.livescience.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow no replies yet
I really thought the energy guru's would have something enlightening or pertinant to say about this.

That is a great idea! I have been to my fair share of metal and rock concerts and let me tell you- the force generated by 500 people jumping in a mosh pit at once is incredible

Good idea but not as good as the one I suggested years ago. Get prisoners on exercise bikes and get them to cycle and generate electricity at the same time, so they can pay back the public for their disorderly conduct.

Originally posted by Mantys
That is a great idea! I have been to my fair share of metal and rock concerts and let me tell you- the force generated by 500 people jumping in a mosh pit at once is incredible

Right
I too am a metal head and concert goer. I agree there's enough moving around in there to power a couple of cities

The best part is there is no toxic emmisions from the generation of electricity..Except maybe alot of sweat

Originally posted by wigit
Good idea but not as good as the one I suggested years ago. Get prisoners on exercise bikes and get them to cycle and generate electricity at the same time, so they can pay back the public for their disorderly conduct.

You deserve a medal for that idea.



I could see fitness centers, sports arenas, malls and such benefiting from this technology.

Its a concept that I have considered for years. My idea was mostly centered on a home though. When installing the wood floor, subfloor, or carpet pad, simply install a pad that has hundreds of tiny plungers, like on the old dynamite detonators, and connect those to your household electric or a battery system.



These could power your hall lights as you walk down the hall, into the kitchen, etc. There may only be enough power to be a suplement, but every little bit helps. If you have children running around the house all day, the power output could be enormous.

The idea is not limited to floors. The same idea could be applied to almost anything that moves. Doors, cabinet doors, rocking chairs. Even the keys on your computer keyboard could create electricity to charge the battery of your laptop.

Heck, you could even create electricity when you sit down on the toilet!

The hangup for residential use has always been the cost. Its hard enough to have the money to replace your floor with regular matierals, let alone add another expense to boot. Also when people purchase a new home they want it to be as inexpensive as possible.


But I never thought to apply the idea to large population centers like subways!

They do this already in Cali I believe it is...

There is a fitness center down there that uses people on those bikes to generate energy for the power in the building..

The kick to how it works is they say you wanna be green, ride the bike..

Sorry I seen this a while ago on TV I think.. I havent watch TV in a few months so I cant remember what it was on.. Probably a tech or science channel.

I see very useful applications of this technology, and not so friendly ones as well...

See human running wheel power

Could be a great idea in cities if used in tandem with other renewable sources. First we need to stop using coal, oil, nuclear, and wood...

Educate the masses in environmental sustainability, we're still living in the 'dark' ages technology wise. Especially in the mainstream. People haven't a clue what is going on.

This is great, maybe the next live earth can use this, so they wont ironicly polote the earth every time they have a concert lol.


Take Care Every One, Vix

Originally posted by highfreq

Originally posted by Mantys
That is a great idea! I have been to my fair share of metal and rock concerts and let me tell you- the force generated by 500 people jumping in a mosh pit at once is incredible

Right

I too am a metal head and concert goer. I agree there's enough moving around in there to power a couple of cities

The best part is there is no toxic emmisions from the generation of electricity..Except maybe alot of sweat

And large clouds of pot smoke, but theres nobody complaining about that haha.

There is no free source of energy. If you get energy from the walking motion of people then you are making that walking more difficult on people. The human walking gait is a very efficient system that operates much like a pendulum to conserve nearly all the energy from one step to another. Anything that removes energy from the system would require more energy input on the part of the user (walker.)

Here is an example to consider. When you walk on beach sand it is more difficult and tiring. Why? Because some of the energy in each step is being used to deform the sand underfoot so there is less energy conserved for the next step. That means more energy has to spent on the next step than a normal step on a hard surface. The result is that you tire more quickly.

Oh and here is something else I like from the article:

Some 28,527 steps, for example, could power an entire moving train for a second.

This means that if 200 people boarded a train and each took 100 steps in the time it takes to get to the train. That you could reduce the train's energy usage by a whooping 0.3% (assuming that 5 minutes is the average transit time.) Thats great! Assuming it doesn't break first, it should only take about 200 years for the system to pay for itself and start saving money and energy.

Finally, this idea was pretty much invented by the Japanese several years ago and implemented two years ago in their subway system. They don't use a system with moving parts (which is prone to malfunction) and they didn't try to give it a marketable name from the start. Once again, MIT shows they are better marketeers than scientists.

Japanese Beat MIT Announcement by Over 2 Years

Jon

What if they used this same concept on roads? Crowded highways could produce an enormous amount of electricity

Originally posted by steve22
What if they used this same concept on roads? Crowded highways could produce an enormous amount of electricity

Excellent sugestion. I suppose the only drawback would the cost to rip up the roads and place these systems unerneath.Even if they were to install them starting with new construction, anytime they would need to repair a section of the generation device it would require ripping up the road again. Of course the same thing happens with water mains and such but I think this generation principle is based on motion,hence mechanics. Any time you have moving parts invoved there is wear and tear. Thus the need to repair more often.
Nice thinking though

I think cost would be a big factor. Would it take 100 years for this to pay for itself?

I think the cheapest and best way for free electricity is windmills. How big would it have to be to run a house? What a great business that would be to sell wind turbines for a single house. Lets go into business somebody I smell alot of money there.