Development of an indoor airflow energy harvesting system for building environment monitoring

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. © 2014 by the authors.