ITP Sustainable

Solar Xylophone

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Solar Xylophone is a solar powered, solar controlled, autonomous musical instrument. The xylophone was designed with hopes of using renewable energy as a responsible way of powering the piece but also as a powerful theme to drive its artistic elements. As an autonomous instrument, the xylophone will play music whenever sun is available and will play a virtually unpredictable string of notes, giving it a complete life of its own.

inDOOR Energy Harvesting

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

From the time you wake up in the morning to eating, walking, even sitting at a desk, you are generating energy. What if we could harness and harvest our actions, turn our comings and goings into an unconscious power plant? In my thesis, I am exploring the potential these mundane actions have to produce the electricity for the low power devices that supplement our lifestyles. My first investigation is focused on doors. In an office building of just 2,000 workers (like Tisch) entry doors are opened at least 6 times a day, 12,000 times. I have created a prototype for an add-on for hinged doors that generates electricity each time it is opened and closed. There is a mechanism to store this electricity, measure what is produced over time, save that data on a sever and then be able to dynamically graph and monitor its progress from a website. The stored electricity can then be used for any of the buildings off grid needs, such as emergency sign-age, security cameras or lighting.

Smart Outlets

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

With the fast developing technology, electronic appliances have become and continuing to be more widely used in our lives. One of the consequences of having many appliances is the significant amount of energy wasted while they are not being used. The excess usage is caused by the phantom loads and users’ negligent behavior. Studies show that standby power alone accounts for 5 to 15 percent of the electricity wasted in our homes

Smart Outlets aim to help people live a greener lifestyle by helping them conserve energy. The system is automated to kill power at the outlet level when it detects a device has gone to standby mode. The outlets are also wirelessly networked to cut off unneeded electric flow when a household leaves home and to enable future implementation of remote controlling over the internet. The prototype comprises one power strip of 2 regular and 5 controlled outlets, one controlled single socket, a key hook unit that acts as kill switch activated when the last person leaves home and possibly an ethernet module to enable managing the system over the internet.

Helios-The Power Tree

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Helios Power Tree is a sculptural concept for localizing energy production for public use. It is also a source of ambient lighting and sound for urban areas. The Helios Tree is an attempt to bridge an inevitable symbiotic relationship between human beings, technology and the environment.

bikejus

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

By hooking up a DC motor to a bicycle we can generate and harvest human powered energy, hooking up the DC motor to an invertor allows us to generate an AC current and \’juice\’ household appliances.

The Garden Electric

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

We use electricity all the time, but it\’s a hidden process contained in plugs and kept behind walls. The Garden Electric visualizes our consumption of electricity through the growth and death of each of the garden\’s plants.

The Garden Electric consists of an array of plants that are constructed by sculpting and inflating recycled plastic bags, creating a synthetic garden. Each plant is daisy chained to an appliance through an ammeter, which reads the amount of current said appliance uses. The values generated by the ammeter trigger a motor that displaces air from a bellow to and from the plant. When the appliance is off, the ammeter reads no current and the plant thrives and stays inflated. When the appliance is turned on, the amount of air relational to the amount of current being used is deprived from the plant and it is placed in a dying state.

Meant to be an approachable, hands-on environment the Garden Electric invites the user to walk through and affect the garden, allowing electricity to take on a tactile form.

In addition, all values obtained by the ammeter will be logged in a database through Arduino and PHP. This is intended to track the daily energy consumption at ITP.

Roof-Link

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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Solar Bikini

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The iDrink swimware line is perfect for those who want to go the beach, listen to music, and enjoy a cold and deserved beverage, but who don\’t want to get wet! The iDrink\’s photovoltaic film panels allow a fashionable fit while supplying the 6.5 volts @ 1.5 Amps needed to power a peltier junction and an iPod and keep you double cool! See you on the Jersey Shore!

Solar Jelly

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thinking about a way to raise awareness to energy consumption within a certain space, I have come up with the Solar Jelly light display. Solar Jelly reacts to its\’ surroundings according to the levels of light. It pulsates and moves when the levels are high enough, and it goes still, turning on a light, when the room light levels fall under a certain threshold. Solar Jelly is created using broken solar cells, utilized and connected in a way that their reuse generates a decent amount of voltage.

BikeJuice

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

This project was created in the interest of sustainable practices, harnessing the energy of exercise, a task many of us should do more often.

The Alternator used for power was a found object.
It was found in a late model GM truck on it\’s way to the scrapper in Red Hook. Sustainatastic!

Our goal for this project is to show, and make you feel, how much human power it would actually take to power the devices and conveniences which we use every single day without a second thought.