A Novel Non-Intrusive Vibration Energy Harvesting Method for Air Conditioning Compressor Unit

Chuan Choong Yang,Hsueh-Hsien Chang,Noor Fiqri Razqi Bin Noor Hanafi,Ahmad Faris Ismail,Noor Hazrin Hany Bt Mohamad Hanif

doi:10.3390/su131810300

Chuan Choong Yang, Hsueh-Hsien Chang + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810300

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Abstract

The purpose of harvesting vibration energy is to obtain clean and sustainable energy by converting vibration energy from ambient sources into a voltage output. In this work, a piezoelectric sensor, PZT-5H is attached to a 3D printed and custom-made mounting to be placed at an air conditioning condenser unit, to harvest vibration energy. The configuration of the harvester is non-intrusive, in which the harvester did not intrude into compressor unit operation. Temperature (20 °C, 22 °C, and 24 °C) and air volume flow rates (3 levels of air volume flow rate at 245 L/second, 274 L/second, and 297 L/second) were taken into consideration in this investigation. An accelerometer was first used to investigate the optimum vibration frequency in Hertz, and six locations were identified. Next, the piezoelectric sensor was mounted at these six locations, and the output root-mean-square (RMS) voltage from the piezoelectric sensor was obtained. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that temperature and air volume flow rates factors were significant. It was found that the location identified with the highest amount of vibration at 830.2 Hz from accelerometer measurement, was also the highest amount of RMS voltage, at 510.82 mV, harvested by the piezoelectric, from the temperature of 20 °C and air volume flow rates at high level (air flow volume flow rate at 297 L/second). From this work, it is feasible to utilize this novel method of harvesting waste vibration energy from the air conditioning compressor unit.

Highlights

IntroductionOne of the renewable and sustainable energies which is potential to be harvested by end users is from harvesting vibration energy [1,2,3]
Introduction published maps and institutional affilOne of the renewable and sustainable energies which is potential to be harvested by end users is from harvesting vibration energy [1,2,3]
The experiment was performed with two factor which were temperature (Factor A) which were at 20 ◦ C, 22 ◦ C, and 24 ◦ C and air volume flow rates (Factor B) which were at level low, medium, and high

Summary

Introduction

One of the renewable and sustainable energies which is potential to be harvested by end users is from harvesting vibration energy [1,2,3]. Most vibration-based energy harvesting is to convert mechanical energy from the ambient to electrical energy [4]. This vibration energy harvesting offers potential to researchers to perform further research since the technology maturity is still not achieved for this energy generation technology [5,6]. The few advantages of the vibration energy harvesting are the energy generated is clean, minimal maintenance cost, and non-intrusive to the existing state [6]. Non-intrusive energy harvesting had been performed on air-conditioning compressor unit by attaching piezoelectric sensors at the air conditioning outdoor unit [7,8]

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