EFS 8 - Libanon Lyceum 

Question: 
Our school is currently working with a local Dutch energy supplier in order to find more useful ways to make our school more energy efficient. 
The energy supplier gave us an assignment to find effective and cost-efficient ways to create energy from our surroundings. 
One of the concepts to create energy is converting the energy generated by the students going up and down the stairs into electrical energy. 
Our school has four floors.

Our question is: Is there a possibility to convert energy, released from kinetic energy, into electric energy?

We will gather all your answers, combine solutions and and try to realize it in our school. 

Answer from EFS1

Answer from  EFS2

Hello students and teachers. Us students here at Redstone thought your question was intruguing and we decided to attempt to answer it. Your question was especially hard and required a generous amount of time of research to answer it. We think that your idea of using the energy generated by students walking up and down the stairs was brilliant and quite creative. Our group decided that we could convert the kinetic energy created by the student walking up the stairs here at Redstone by putting air pads underneath the stairs, so when students walk up and down the stairs to get to their classes, the wind created will blow into vents on the outside walls, and collects inside sacs under the stairs. Once people step on them, then air gets pumped into pistons, which pushes the pistons up and down. As they go pumping up and down, it will power gears connecting to a gen erator and create electric energy, that will be stored into a battery. We could use it for charging laptops, small electronics, etc. We aren't exactly sure if this idea is practical, but we think it would be a cool idea. Although, a downfall would be that this idea isn't exactly cost efficient.
23 steps in a floor
there are 4 floors; 23x4=92steps
You go approximately up and down the stairs approximately 6 times a day
One class is around 30 students- 4 classes - 30 x 4 = 120.
The average speed is 5 kilometres/hour.
The average weight of a college student (around the age of 20-24) is 130lbs - 150lbs.
92 x 120 = 11040 (Going up the stairs once)
11040 x 6 = 66 240/per day.
5km/hr = 0.083 km/m.
There are approximately 23 steps in a floor and 4 floors 23x4= 92steps
Go up and down the stairs approximately 6 times a day.
30 students a class - 4 classes - 30 x 4 = 120.
Average speed 5 kilometres/hr.
Average weight - 130 - 150lbs or 59 kg
92 x 120 = 11040 (Going up the stairs once).
11040 x 6 = 66 240/per day.
5km/hr = 0.083 km/m= 5000 m/hours divided by 120= 1.38 m/s
Mass x Velocity2 divided by 2.
Mass= 7,080
Velocity2= 1.9044
6,741.576 watts of energy?
Another idea we had was to get a bunch of stationary bikes. Here in Canada we aren't getting as much exercise as we should because we are spending a lot of time on the computer and watching TV. We think that having a group of students sign up to spend 20 or so minutes out of class to pedal on these bikes would be a great way for them to get excercise while generating energy that can somehow be stored in batteries that can be used to power or charge small electronics like charging the laptops, turning on the lights and also charging some batteries. 

Answer from EFS3

We wanted to tell you that we found your project very interesting and very ecological, and we searched about the answer and it’s possible to convert kinetic energy into electric energy and this is our answer:

In order for Kinetic energy to be converted into electrical energy, the kinetic energy usually drives the rotation or oscillation of a magnet in close proximity to coiled wire. A bar magnet can be moved up and down through the centre of a looped coil of wires. As the wire comes into contact with the magnetic field of the magnet, a current is induced in the wire. Likewise, a collection of magnets attached to a large prop shaft when rotated will induce a current in a large array of coiled wires which surround but do not touch the circled array of magnets. Kinetic energy is essentially converted into electrical energy in most production of electricity. Oil, Gas, Coal or Nuclear energy are all used to heat water; the steam of which turns turbines and therefore the prop shaft. And also we can use the kinetic energy of the rotation of the water’s wheel to convert it into electric energy and if people starts to use it we can have better electricity without any damage, also the governments should consider this plan and start to work on it and achieve it and care about the nature as she cares about her personal ambitions cause every second we are exposing to natural disaster because of the global worming who deteriorate the earth. And there still country who use the uranium to produce electricity and they don’t realize that it is very dangerous not only for the nature but although for the humanity. And in Lebanon since we are not developed as other country we don’t have that kind of things but we started using the electricity from the sunlight, the water and other source so we count on the other country to realize what’s on our mind to help the nature, we are young and the future repose on us so let’s start to work on it to create a better future.

Answer from EFS4

After several internet researches, we found out that it is possible to convert kinetic energy into electric energy and below is our answer... Electrical kinetic energy is one of the various categories of electric energy. Kinetic energy is the energy created from motion. The movement can be on a straight path, vibrating or rotation. You can calculate an object’s kinetic force by summating all the energies that have been created as the object was in motion. Kinetic energy is derived from an object’s mass and the speed at which it travels.
We can give the example of a windmill. When the moving air or wind with kinetic energy hits the wind blades, the kinetic energy is transferred to the blades and causes the windmill to turn. This turns the generator which consists of magnets and wire coils, and the changes in magnetic flux in the wires causes electricity to flow.
Another example:16 years old Peter living in England invented a hamster-powered cell phone charger for a school science project. For his project, Ash attached a generator to his hamster’s wheel and connected it to his phone charger. “I thought the wheel could be made to do something useful so I connected a system of gears and a turbine,” he said. “Every two minutes Elvis (the hamster) spends on his wheel gives me about thirty minutes talk time on my phone”.

New Technology: Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a kinetic energy generator which derives electrical energy from the vibrations and movements that occur within its environment. Developed by dr. Steve Beeby and his team at the University's School of Electronics & Computer Science (ECS), the tiny generator (less than 1 cubic cm in size) is 10 times more powerful than anything yet developed in the field.
The generator produces electrical energy using an arrangement of four magnets with a wound coil located in the magnetic field. The magnet size and coil properties are designed to produce energy from low vibration levels and the device has been shown to convert 30% of the power supplied from the environment into useful electrical power.
Vibrations from household items such as fridges, washing machines and microwave ovens as well as buildings and bridges are also suitable for the application of the model presented by dr. Beeby.

Answer from EFS5

Creating electric energy from kinetic energy:
Creating electric energy from kinetic energy is possible. In fact, there are a few different ways in which this can be accomplished.
One of these ways is installing a powerstairs. With the powerstairs energy can be created by student walking up en down the stairs. It actually works pretty easy. By stepping on the stairs you make a gear spin, which is attached to a dynamo. Together this creates energy, which can be stored in a battery (see image bellow).This energy then can be used anywhere in the school, at anytime and for anything. The money invested in this powerstairs system can be earned back with the saved money from the energy bills.
http://i.imgur.com/m40pz.png
Another way to convert kinetic energy into electric energy is by the way of turbines. These turbines are already in full use all over the world, mostly in windmills or water turbines. The kinetic energy (e.g. the wind) pushes the blades of the turbine, which rotates some magnets past copper coils which produces an alternating current. On the inside, it looks like this:
http://i.imgur.com/J5E9N.png
This is currently the easiest and most-used method in the world nowadays, but last year a company developed a new way for people to easily make their own clean energy and power their devices at the same time. It’s called the nPower Peg, it looks like a cylinder which you strap to your bag, briefcase or anything, and don’t worry about it anymore. You can plug it into your phone, iPod, laptop or whatever and you can charge it while you walk. The friction created by your movement generates energy inside of the cylinder which you can use for your own things. Every minute you move, the peg provides a minute of energy for charging your devices. It looks like this, and Fox news has a video of it explaining a bit of how it works. You can see it by going to this URL: http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-energy-device-human-movement-txt,0,5627342.story
http://i.imgur.com/neyJk.png
Answer from EFS7
Kinetic energy is moving, so e.g. a common dynamo placed at a place where things move. You can put this at for example a door. So every time you open the door, you activate the dynamo and the energy is stored in some kind of energy storage for the electricity in the room.
You will need extra electricity because opening doors won’t be enough (unless you would keep opening and opening it). So, you will need more energy. What about little cycling machines underneath the tables with another dynamo connected to the energy storage network. So while you’re working, you’re cycling. Or during your physical education courses you could cycle while the bicycle is connected to some kind of dynamo.
Also you could try something like a ‘Kinetic Energy Kite’, see: http://www.rense.com/general78/kinet.htm

Answer from EFS7

Kinetic energy is moving, so e.g. a common dynamo placed at a place where things move. You can put this at for example a door. So every time you open the door, you activate the dynamo and the energy is stored in some kind of energy storage for the electricity in the room.
You will need extra electricity because opening doors won’t be enough (unless you would keep opening and opening it). So, you will need more energy. What about little cycling machines underneath the tables with another dynamo connected to the energy storage network. So while you’re working, you’re cycling. Or during your physical education courses you could cycle while the bicycle is connected to some kind of dynamo.
Also you could try something like a ‘Kinetic Energy Kite’, see: http://www.rense.com/general78/kinet.htm

Answer from EFS9

Is there a possibility to convert energy, released from kinetic energy, into electric energy?
This is a question which requires creative answers. We think it is possible to convert energy that released from kinetic energy into electric energy. According to some physical concepts that we just learnt from our physics class, we thought that maybe we can make use of pulley blocks and friction to generate electric power.
The following is our conception:
Equip the handrails with a belt with pulley blocks in it.
Add some handles to the belt
In the process of going upstairs, students can grab the holders. Through this action, the reaction force and friction force would be produced, making the belt and pulley blocks rotate and then produce electric power
This is our thought, and we hope it can inspire you to some extent.

Answer from EFS10

There is a kind of manual flash light in Taiwan that can change kinetic energy into electrical energy only by shaking it or press the button on its side, and the power it generated will be saved in the battery of the flash light. With this convenience device, you don’t have to worry about whether your flash light is in low battery or not when the earthquake or any other natural disaster hits. Furthermore, this kind of manual flash light is very commonand easy to buy in Taiwan.
In addition, we have a kind of bicycle which can generate power when pedaling it, and the power will be used on bike lamps or street lamps.
We also make use of waterwheels and windmills , that generate power by natural wind power and waterpower, just like another countries.

1. Generating power by waterwheel
untitled.bmp
2.Pushed flash light
3.Generating power by bicycles
untitled12.bmp
4.Windmills in Chi-Jing

Answer from EFS11

Answer from EFS12

Yes, it is possibility to convert kinetic energy into electric energy. However, in our school, there are no such designs right now. We looked for the information on the Internet and also asked our physics teacher. We all hope the examples will be your useful reference. We expect you can succeed.

First, it is the most “green” hotel in the world called Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers. They encourage consumers to help the hotel make the electricity. The hotel provides the bicycles that can produce the electricity in the gym. These bicycles can collect the kinetic energy from riders, and turn it to electric energy.

Then, this is the example from another company--Sustainable Dance Floor.

As people dance on the floor, the shaking of the floor will produce electricity. The dance club also shows how much electricity is produced as people are dancing. 

These are instances that we want to share you. We wish your plan will be successful.