Safety

ECE 445 Safety Guidelines

  1. No one is allowed to work in the lab alone. At least 2 people must be in the lab at all times.
  2. Everyone must complete a mandatory online safety training in order to be allowed to work in the lab. Certificates of completion must submitted on Canvas.
  3. Any group planning on working with high voltages is required to complete additional safety training.
  4. Any group charging or utilizing certain battery chemistries must read, understand, and follow guidelines for safe battery usage.
  5. If you're working on any project involving electric current running through a human subject, you must read through and understand these guidelines for Safe Current Limits!

Requirements and Grading

The Laboratory Safety Training must be completed by all students enrolled in ECE 445. This module can be found on University's Division of Research Safety website.

Submission and Deadlines

Certificates of completion must submitted on Canvas. The due date listed on the Course Calendar. Students who have not completed this requirement will have lab access revoked.

Electricity-Generating Device Retrofitted for Spin Bikes with Wall Outlet Plug Connected to Gym's Grid

Raihana Hossain, Elisa Krause, Tiffany Wang

Electricity-Generating Device Retrofitted for Spin Bikes with Wall Outlet Plug Connected to Gym's Grid

Featured Project

**Elisa Krause (elisak2), Raihana Hossain (rhossa2), Tiffany Wang (tw22)**

**Problem:** Something we take for granted everyday is energy. Constantly, there is energy consumption in malls, offices, schools, and gyms. However, the special thing about gyms is that there is always someone using either the elliptical, bike or etc. Now what if, along with losing those extra pounds, you can also generate some electricity using these machines? Our device is a straightforward and cheap alternative for gyms to have retrofitted spin bikes that generate electricity, and for the gym to save money by using the electricity generated by the bikes that can be connected to the gym’s grid by simply plugging the device into the wall outlet.

**Solution Overview:** We are retrofitting a spin bike with an electricity-generating device that can be plugged into the wall outlet, which will be the path to send the generated electricity back to the gym’s grid to be used. The amount of electricity generated can also be monitored and displayed with the device.

**Solution Components:**

* **[Retrofit for Electricity Generation]** Component that attaches to any spin bike on the outside (straightforward and simple retrofit) and generates electricity when the bike is being used.

* **[Send Power to Gym Grid]** Component that reverses the typical direction of the wall outlet and sends the energy generated by the bike riders back to the gym’s power grid.

* **[Metering]** Component that records and displays how much energy was generated between the times when someone presses a button on the device. The first button press will reset the display. The second button press will show how much energy was generated from the time when the button was first pressed.

**Criterion for success:**

* Retrofits any (or the majority of) spin bike types

* Energy generated from people working out on the spin bikes is sent from a wall outlet to the gym’s power grid

* Device displays the power generated by a bike during the time of two button presses.

* Show that our power output being generated matches and syncs up with a sinusoidal input using a mock setup to simulate the grid

Project Videos