IER stands for Incidental Energy Reclamation.

This was on the backburner and in the bare beginnings of the planning and prototyping stage for a long time. I've recently begun to focus on it again as part of a current project in progress, tentativley titled Relaxation Oscillator Network, showing at Oboro in 2008. It turns out that lots of people (including the US military) are interested in this kind of thing. The "Notions of Expenditure" site has similar (and better) ideas.

This project investigates the possibility of the incidental gesture (passing through a door) recuperated into usable energy for the purposes of doing work.

Heavy duty door closers are already installed on nearly every door in any given institutional, public or corporate building everywhere. A small DC generator coupled to a door closer rotates with the motion of the door, producing a pulse of electricity. The motor is wired directly to a rechargeable battery, no complicated regulation circuitry is required due to extremely low power output. The battery trickle charges, like drops of water slowly filling up a bucket. In field tests, meters will be placed in circuit to determine wattage per door closing and therefore number of persons required to fully charge battery. Initial measurements show that the door generates 30 milliamperes at 0.4 volts per swing, or 0.012 watts, on average. It predicted that a charge of 60 watts (the power requirements of a standard light bulb) will require approximately 5000 passerby. Field tests will produce accurate statistics, to be used towards increasing efficiency.

Proposals could be made to large institutions with many doors. The seemingly minuscule output multiplied a hundredfold, or even a thousandfold, represents realistic power potential. This raises the questions: How many doors does the average institution or corporate building have? What is the volume and rate of flow of internal pedestrian traffic through their corridors? Further field tests could provide these statistics, and estimate the size of an untapped energy reserve.

• instead of battery, could use a low leakage, high farad super capacitor
• low voltage dropout regulation needed
• could be used to power transmitters, uCTRLrs etc., periodically sending data
• other power sources:
  • generators coupled to escalator belts
  • piezo vibrators on highway overpasses, bridges etc.
  • rain collectors