EnOcean harvesting power from the environment, not batteries
Remember EnOcean's batteryless / wireless light switches on display last year? Don't sweat it, neither did we. Still, that hasn't stopped EnOcean from experimenting with battery-less sensors which harvest electricity from vibrations (pictured) and temperature differentials. According to EnOcean, their prototype thermal-differential sensor attached to say, a water pipe, can harvest up to 50-milliwatts as long as one surface is 3-degrees Celsius higher or lower than the immediate environment. While that pales in compaison to batteries, it's still enough power to transmit a tweaked RF signal as far as 300-meters in an open warehouse or 30-meters through walls. Nearby sensors can also act as relays to extend signal transmission. Link the sensors with a thermostat and you can create micro-climates around the home; link 'em to a home automation system and control your house without the need to run power and Cat 5 / WiFi everywhere. Now someone get those X10 
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household, Wireless
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Spoon! @ Sep 19th 2006 9:18AM
"as far as 300-meters in an open wharehouse"
Should that be whorehouse or warehouse? I know I sure could use some of these new wireless devices in my whorehouse. :P
Kibi @ Sep 19th 2006 9:26AM
Damn, Spoon!
You got that line in before me.
strider_mt2k @ Sep 19th 2006 10:43AM
And with all that rockin' going on you can sell power back to your local energy concern!!
Kibi @ Sep 19th 2006 9:28AM
Sorry - just a test of the emergency comments syste. In the event of a real comment, you might be more interested
simon @ Sep 19th 2006 9:29AM
Awesome, we need more alternative energy for our ever growing demand for energy to power our devices everyday.
God damn, Engadget proof-read before you post or else u end up with all these pedantic idiots that have nothing to better than pick up on your spelling mistakes
Zeke @ Sep 19th 2006 12:47PM
Yes, but can it run Mako?
StandardAI @ Sep 22nd 2006 4:00AM
Wouldn't this be cool for say, MP3 Players? Imagine powering one with the heat of your body, as the outer tempurature is usually well 3 degrees off body tempurature. I can't imagine why someone would use this inside, as there's all the the handy dandy electrical outlet. If you implimented this system for indoor mounted devices they'd only really be novelty and not so much useful.
Jon @ Dec 11th 2006 4:58PM
Not interesting. EnOcean says they have all this great stuff, but it's tremendously expensive and it's mostly just press releases with no actual products. They're distributed by adhocelectronics in the US:
http://www.adhocelectronics.com/Products/Wireless-Light-Switches
Some examples:
* Cheapest wireless rocker switch? $59.40
* Cheapest receiver (light fixture must be modified to add it)? $59.96
* Plug-in reciever? Uhh.... "This product is coming soon."
Meanwhile, there's another company that has been selling the same products for half the price for a while (a worldchanging blog says more than a year). Yes... you can actually buy them!
* Toggle switch $23.99
* Wire-in receiver $33.99
* Plug-in receiver $33.99
Way to give all the glory to the guys with the overblown press releases and no actual consumer-buyable products.
Jon @ Dec 11th 2006 5:10PM
Oh right. That other company is Lightning Switch. :-)
http://www.lightningswitch.com/