Generating Power From Walking - The Crowd Farm Concept

Imagine powering your electricity by sitting down. Two MIT students have found a way to be lazy and generate their electricity by doing exactly this.


James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk have showed that the simple act of sitting on a stool can generate enough power to turn on 4 LED lights and that a single stride provides enough power to light a single 60 Watt light bulb for 1 second.

A relatively few 84 million strides could power a space shuttle launch.

The Crowd Farm concept relies on the related principle that mechanical movement can be converted into electricity, though on a larger scale. The mechanics would be supplied by a spongy floor in which embedded blocks move under the weight of passing pedestrians. The conversion process itself could be handled by a generator that uses a rotating coil and electromagnets to produce an electric current from the mechanical movement.

This all leads you to ask yourself, very seriously, “How much power do I generate by sitting on the toilet?”

Via :: Press Release