Designers have turned a bed, a shower and a rocking chair into micro-power plants for your home.
Not necessarily. Designer Arthur Xin, of the cheekily named ‘sexindesign studio,’ has come up with an energy generating bed that provides sport of a kind not normally associated with your boudoir. Exercise rings attached to his Ecotypic bed can be used whilst standing, or even, for less enthusiastic athletes, lying down. The kinetic energy produced by pulling the rings is stored in a battery beneath the bed, and used to power the integrated LED lighting system or the speakers blaring out your wake-up tunes. The design also features flower boxes, enabling you to nurture a bedroom garden as well as your health and fitness.
Xin is not the only innovator exploring unusual forms of micro power plants. From the bedroom to the bathroom, a team of designers in Paris hopes to turn the simple routine of showering into a source of power. The prototype Piezo Shower captures the energy of the water by channeling it through a series of tiny pipes. The pipes contain piezoelectric fibers, which convert the friction of the flow into electricity to heat the water.
And to complete your morning energy-generating routine, you could munch your toast on an Empower rocking chair, converting the motion to drive a range of portable electronic devices, such as MP3 players or mobile phones. It will feel even better if you’re sitting outside at one of Afroditi Krassa’s PV patio tables, designed to capture power from the sunlight which would otherwise merely make you squint over the coffee.
Fiona King is a writer for Green Futures, where a version of this article originally appeared.
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