Energy Harvesting for Practical Deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks in Building Energy Management (BEM) Applications

The Tyndall Mote is a technology platform for research activities in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). BEM is one of the major application areas as it has been demonstrated that energy effic iency savings of up to 1520% are possible by using WSN technology in smart build ing applications [1]. The current mote design offers a modular, flexible and stackable solution. But for next generation design ‘selfpowering’ is a critical deliverable. However there is a considerable gap between required energy and available ambient energy for typical BEM deployments. To help bridge this gap the paper outlines several design considerations for future mote design (e.g. microcontroller, transceiver and sensor selections, DC/DC converter design, software, RF network) as well as practical considerations (e.g. start-up, charging & storage, leakage currents, transients, sensing intervals). BEM is the main focal point although much of the research is applicable to other applications.