Abstract
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been widely used for intelligent building management applications. Typically, indoor environment parameters such as illumination, temperature, humidity and air quality are monitored and adjusted by an intelligent building management system. However, owing to the short life-span of the batteries used at the sensor nodes, the maintenance of such systems has been labor-intensive and time-consuming. This paper discusses a battery-less self-powering system that converts the mechanical energy from the airflow in ventilation ducts into electrical energy. The system uses a flutter energy conversion device (FECD) capable of working at low airflow speeds while installed on the ventilation ducts inside of buildings. A power management strategy implemented with a circuit system ensures sufficient power for driving commercial electronic devices. For instance, the power management circuit is capable of charging a 1 F super capacitor to 2 V under ventilation duct airflow speeds of less than 3 m/s.
Highlights
Energy-efficient environment management has attracted much research interest in recent years.In the United States, residential and office buildings account for nearly 70% of the electric energy consumption and nearly 40% of CO2 emissions [1]
In practice, the performance of wireless sensor networks (WSN) is severely limited by the fact that the sensor nodes need to be recharged every several months because the associated batteries are discharged rapidly as a consequence of the relatively high power consumption of the microprocessors, transceivers, etc. used in the system
This paper describes an energy harvesting technology that is different from all the technologies described above
Summary
Energy-efficient environment management has attracted much research interest in recent years. Under typical indoor lighting conditions (1~5 W/m2 light intensity conditions), monocrystaline PV cells have an efficiency of less than 1%~3%, while amorphous PV cells are more sensitive to different wavelengths, so the latter exhibit higher efficiencies (3%~7%). This means that the photovoltaic cells can provide a power density ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 mW/cm under indoor artificial illumination conditions [3]. In view of the typically constant illumination conditions of indoor applications, the maximum power point can be determined and the maximum power point tracking circuit in the power management system can be simplified substantially Another attractive indoor harvesting technique is to use a thermal energy generator (TEG).
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