14 DAY TRIAL // Green energy is more and more on people's minds as discussions about the depleting resources of the planet are to be heard almost every single day. With batteries transforming into rechargeable batteries, a non-friendly load has been taken off the already burdened environment, yet another problem emerged: chargers. Chargers come with two major issues: they plug into the electricity grid and they come in bulky shapes that make them a not-so-comfortable thing to carry with you.
Addressing these two issues comes an interesting prototype created by a group of Korean designers, Ji-yun Kim, Soon-young Yang and Hwan-ju Jeon, and which aims to bring more green energy into the field of rechargeable batteries.
The three designers have named their project Febot (though it’s not clear what Febot stands for) and it uses wind power to generate energy that can be stored in rechargeable batteries. The Febot looks like a small torpedo and it has been designed to recharge one AA battery at a time. In fact we're dealing with a propeller revolving around the axis of a shaft, which also contains the transformer and rectifier module.
The fun thing about the Febot is that it comes with a suction cup that allows you to attach this wind-powered charger to pretty much any smooth and flat surface. The designers claim it could even be placed on the outside of your window; yet the orientation of the propeller axis against the surface of the window may not provide the best results.
Due to the fact that air usually flows around the surface of the objects it may prove that the Febot is not exploiting the wind potential as much as it could if the propeller were tilted in the desired direction. And even more, the project could face some very serious problems linked to the generic bad performance of suction cups in open spaces, combined with the bigger leverage created by placing the battery in the "nose" of the gadget.
Now, with all the downsides of the Febot, it still remains a very neat project to harvest wind power, with a very interesting look and maybe some real potential should things involve a better fastening system and a weathercock-like wind-adjustable operation. Green is good, nevertheless.
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