NRG PACK! Harness The Power Of Walking  E-mail
Written by Hank Green   
Monday, 19 November 2007

One of our sibling blogs, Carectomy.com, just went into some detail discussing a new walker-powered backpack. The straps of the pack are made of a special material that can harness static electricity generated from the energy of walking.

My first thought is that the energy from this action would be negligable in all situations, but Josh at Carectomy points out

A soldier carrying a 100-pound load and walking at 2-3 miles per hour would generate 45.6 milliwatts of power. To put this into context, an LED headlamp consumes about 38mW, an iPod nano 46mW, and a Motorola Razr cell phone 9mW in standby mode and 360mW while talking.

That's pretty impressive, actually. The only material necessary to generate the power are the backpack's straps, which are made from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and possibly an onboard battery. Of course, the technology is a while away, but maybe someday we'll have whole wardrobes made of PVDF and we'll shuffle our feet on the carpet to keep our cell phones juiced up.

Via Carectomy


Comments (7)add
Add a solar panel
written by weee , November 20, 2007
to the back and you're pretty much self sufficient for music and communication!
um...
written by zupakomputer , November 20, 2007
I'm sitting here wearing some kind of shiny-type of material jacket, but it's only cause they don't sell many decent hemp clothes in the UK (and they cost a fortune), not enough recycled fleeces & organic clothes either. Not really into the idea of wearing anything that starts with poly-.
...
written by zupakomputer , November 20, 2007
Does this one only charge up from human movement - the other one mentioned below seems to work on movement in general, which opens up all kinds of applications for the technology to be fitted to. ie - fitting it onto things that are already in constant motion, including wind turbine blades.
For Soldiers: Totally Useless
written by Ken Z , November 20, 2007
The problem here is that there ain't a soldier-carried item that uses that small amount of energy. Main radio? 6W (120 times the power this backpack puts out). Secondary radio? 3-4W (80 times what this backpack puts out). Tactical Flashlight? 10W (200 times what this backpack puts out).

To put it in perspective, one of those small, almost weightless CR-123 cells has about 4.0 Wh. Thus, a soldier would have to walk for 80 hours to produce the same amount of energy as is in a single, almost weightless, $3 battery. And they don't have to carry a backpack to do it.

Summary: This invention is useless.
...
written by celia , November 23, 2007
I'm an avid pedestrian. I'm a staunch supporter of public transportation. Such an item would be great for the chargable Items I carry.
Soldiers' battery problem
written by chris , August 09, 2008
American soldiers carry an amazing amount of weight, and a significant amount comes from batteries. As I understand it, many of these are replacement batteries. Assuming that these straps are lightweight, they could be used with other devices that charge batteries via movement, to significantly reduce the weight needed to be carried by people who seriously have enough stress to deal with, being shot at and seeing their friends die and all. Also, less stress means fewer casualties, I'm sure. Oh, and less bad behavior.
...
written by chris , August 09, 2008
American soldiers carry an amazing amount of weight, and a significant amount comes from batteries. As I understand it, many of these are replacement batteries. Assuming that these straps are lightweight, they could be used with other devices that charge batteries via sunlight and/or movement, to significantly reduce the weight needed to be carried by people who seriously have enough stress to deal with, being shot at and seeing their friends die and all (and the 130 degree heat in the Middle East). Also, less stress means fewer casualties, I'm sure. Oh, and less bad behavior.
Write comment
quote
bold
italicize
underline
strike
url
image
quote
quote
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley
Smiley

busy

Hank Green
About the author:

Hank Green is the founder and chief geek at EcoGeek.org. Aside from being obsessed with saving the planet with technology, he loves to write and make videos. If you want to find out more about him, visit hankgreen.com

 
< Prev   Next >

Are You an EcoGeek?

Science, technology gadgets and...baby seals. We're in a bit of an eco-mess, but we've got the brains to lick any problem. And that's why EcoGeek.org publishes up to ten stories daily about innovations that are saving the planet.

And if that sounds interesting to you, then congratulations, you're an EcoGeek.

Weekly Updates

RSS

rss