Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors
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ThermalHarvest.pdf
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Author(s)
Yun, Maxwell
Ustun, Ecenur
Nadeau, Phillip
Chandrakasan, Anantha P
Date Issued
September 2016
Journal
2016 MIT Undergraduate Research Technologies Conference
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Citation
Yun, Maxwell et al. "Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors." 2016 MIT Undergraduate Research Technologies Conference November 4-6 2016, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
This paper investigates the use of thermoelectric energy harvesting for embedded, self-powered sensor nodes in smart homes. In particular, one such application is self-powered pressure sensing in vacuum insulation panels for buildings. The panels greatly improve heating and cooling energy use, and the thermal difference developed across them could be used to drive a wireless sensor to monitor their pressure level. We first created a model for the available power using historical weather data. Then, we measured the thermoelectric generator’s actual power output by combining the generator with a vacuum insulation panel and mounting it inside a window for experiments. Finally, we determine the feasibility of using the established thermal gradient to power a sensor node. We show that thermoelectric energy harvesting could enable a new class of embedded, maintenance-free, self-powered sensors for smart homes.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
http://sites.ieee.org/r1/r1_event/2016-ieee-mit-undergraduate-research-technology-conference/
