Would This Work?

 Piezo crystals make small amounts of electricity when they vibrate.

  LEDs use small amounts of electricity.

Would the typical vibrations around a home excite the crystals enough to
light LEDs, or would it just take too many crystals to be practical?

Or is it just a stupid idea to begin with?

Curly.

 

Curlyque wrote:


Very small. Microwatts mostly unless they are very large examples.



Not really true. 20 - 50 mW would be quite typical.



I'm afraid so. You could probably use electromagnetic generators based on
magnets, springs and coils to tap into draughts and stuff though.

Graham

 

There were skis manufactured with this combo. Led would light when skis bounced.
Same with running shoes.

 

  It was my understanding that the crystals worked
under compression, not simple vibration.

  Perhaps you could make a pair of shoes that could
charge up a battery over time then drive some LEDs
for a limited period.

  If we still had the spirit of the turn of the century
inventors, there would be little generators putting
a spring in our step and charging our cell phones
or i-Pods.  They could be based on the bicycle
bell mechanism.  They would be complements
to our solar PV shirts.

Luck;
    Ken

 

Actually, in the process of generating electricity, they take the spring OUT of
your step.

Or the skis, the advertised function was to absorb vibration.

On the shoes, it was just visual. Although, at least one criminal was caught
because the police could see the flashing LEDs on his shoes as he tried to get
away through the woods at night.