alt Hacker NewsAll that static discharge is coming at the expense of the mechanical energy in the system is it not? I’m surprised they let it zap like that video and don’t try to recuperate it somewhere.
One of the weirdest power scavenging solutions I ever saw used a spark gap and a bespoke transformer to make a reverse Tesla coil - taking the very high, very brief voltage spike of a static discharge and stepping it down to create low voltage over a a longer interval. They attached it to their shoe.
> All that static discharge is coming at the expense of the mechanical energy in the system is it not? I’m surprised they let it zap like that video and don’t try to recuperate it somewhere.
Yes, but while the voltage is very high, the energy stored is very low so I don't think it makes any sense to try recover it (there's probably much more energy being wasted by poor insulation of the heated offices or stuff like this).