Harvesting Healthy Energy from Exercise

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective is to calculate the efficiency of converting human exercise kinetic energy into electricity. Methods/Materials A voltmeter, generator, and digital oscilloscope were used to determine the frequency of the electrical current. Various equations were used to determine input energy and output energy. Lastly, the efficiency was calculated. Results The average efficiency of all of the voltages was equal to about 25%, which was very close to what was hypothesized. Not only that, but the efficiency gradually increased from 11% to 35% as the voltages increased. This is possibly due to the nonlinear characteristics of the electrical generator at low and high voltages. There was a tendency that the voltages would saturate at the higher end of the frequencies. Conclusions/Discussion Using a generator to convert kinetic energy into electricity is more efficient at high speeds. Using an industrial generator with more efficient materials used would be more efficient and therefore result in a higher efficiency.

Competition history

• CSEF 2010 Energy & Power (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1010

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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