Energy for Designers

Energy for Designers intro

Energy is one of the big challenges of our society to be solved by you as an inventor designer. We will be trying out weird ways to generate and harvest energy, like algae, chocolate, dance floor, mud, a Joule Thief, body heat and ice. We will also compare this to energy made with a potato, a solar cell, a wind turbine. Or just hack and be an energy parasite! With this experience, you will experiment further and connect your source of energy to your design idea. This can be a product, fashion, or a drawing, illustration, a knitting, architecture or a poster.

What is energy?

Big energy for heating houses, cities.

Small energy for your own gadgets and hacks and smart textiles, or charging your smart phones.

Nano energy, from plants, algae, bacteria.

Week 1 - Day 1

A dutch windmill in action [1]

How the people in the Middle Ages managed to lift stones to make cathedrals

My toy steam engine is running on a blower [2]

Potato power

Getting energy out of ice and my hand - energy harvesting with a Peltier element

Solar cells of course.

Hand crank devices

Windmill at Delfshaven, impressive if it turns in the wind.

Steam engine toy from 50 years ago. It still functions...compare that to an iMac....

Ingenious charging device, with many lessons to learn from

Solar cell with energy harvesting chip, part of Beam's Portable sensor lab

Week 1 - Day 2

Technical day:

Basic electronics, Soldering

Basic calculations, numbers

Batteries, 3V, 1.5V, power of a battery

Lipo, power cells

Joule Thief experiments - boosting voltage

Potato battery

Mud Algae, plant - cell battery

Bike dynamo set up

Hand charging devices IKEA made

Solar cell examples IKEA

Soldering, ppt:

We made a Joule Thief, boosting device, ppt:

https://makezine.com/projects/power-paper-circuits-with-static-electricity/ https://makezine.com/2013/10/10/new-technology-paper-generators-harvest-static-electricity/

Week 1 - Day 3

Starting your own assignment considerations

Making the paper generator

Finishing the Joule Thief

Week 1 - Day 4

Working on your own

Week 1 - Day 5

Working on your own

Week 2 - Day 1

Tutoring

Intro microcontrollers

Adding sensors to a microcontroller

Week 2 - Day 2

Working on your own

Week 2 - Day 3

Tutoring

Week 2 - Day 4

Working on your own

Finishing, testing

Week 2 - Day 5

Presentation day!