Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors

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...

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Main Authors: Yun, Maxwell, Ustun, Ecenur, Nadeau, Phillip, Chandrakasan, Anantha P
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112117
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7820-1625
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5977-2748
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author Yun, Maxwell
Ustun, Ecenur
Nadeau, Phillip
Chandrakasan, Anantha P
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Yun, Maxwell
Ustun, Ecenur
Nadeau, Phillip
Chandrakasan, Anantha P
author_sort Yun, Maxwell
collection MIT
description 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.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1121172022-09-30T09:33:05Z Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors Yun, Maxwell Ustun, Ecenur Nadeau, Phillip Chandrakasan, Anantha P Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Chandrakasan, Anantha P. Yun, Maxwell Ustun, Ecenur Nadeau, Phillip Chandrakasan, Anantha P 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. 2017-11-01T18:34:54Z 2017-11-01T18:34:54Z 2016-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112117 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 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7820-1625 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5977-2748 en_US http://sites.ieee.org/r1/r1_event/2016-ieee-mit-undergraduate-research-technology-conference/ 2016 MIT Undergraduate Research Technologies Conference Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Chandrakasan
spellingShingle Yun, Maxwell
Ustun, Ecenur
Nadeau, Phillip
Chandrakasan, Anantha P
Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors
title Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors
title_full Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors
title_fullStr Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors
title_full_unstemmed Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors
title_short Thermal Energy Harvesting for Self-Powered Smart Home Sensors
title_sort thermal energy harvesting for self powered smart home sensors
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112117
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7820-1625
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5977-2748
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