POWERING CAMPUS STREET LIGHTS USING HUMAN MOVEMENT

The rate of growth of the human population is increasing, resulting in demand for stable, affordable, sustainable, and eco-friendly electricity, especially in developing countries. This study used the growing population problem to solve the problem of electricity. The study developed electricity to power streetlights on campus by converting the daily human movements on campus using a piezoelectric sensor/tile. A piezoelectric tile prototype was built and tested for efficiency. Pressure was exerted on the piezoelectric tile by human movement, which was converted to an electrical charge. The piezoelectricity generated was connected to a bridge rectifier to make it stable and convert the AC to which charged a capacitor. Eight piezoelectric discs were arrayed in series. A piece of cardboard was placed on the spring and piezo circuit to obtain the optimum output. Also, a plastic sheet of 8mm thickness and 1 square foot surface area for pressure and weight distribution was used. The total voltage in series obtained was 26.38 V for the piezo disc arrays, 38 V for the weight on the piezoelectric tile, and 40 W was recorded as the maximum wattage. Although the existing campus streetlight is powered by 54.1 V (20 W for some solar streetlights) with a wattage of about 18 W to 150 W, the power obtained was deployed on low energy consuming bulbs.