Energy efficiency and carbon savings via a body grid

The climate crisis necessitates decarbonization solutions that transform energy systems across all scales. While attention today focuses on utility-scale power systems, mini-or metro-scale grids, and at end-use device efficiency, the individual user scale remains underexplored. Just as with energy efficiency innovations tailored to micro-environments, body-scale energy savings offer new opportunities alongside technological and behavioral challenges. Here we propose a technique and a suite of potential innovations focused on the "body grid" in which devices, circuits, information network, human body and the environment interact within a universal framework to achieve energy savings, new functionality, and improved comfort. We present and test a prototype body grid supporting inter-device synergy and cooperation with external energy systems indoors and outdoors. This system yields substantial energy and economic savings, enhances personal control and comfort, and enables potential energy market participation. Simulation results demonstrate global energy savings of up to 50% for space cooling and heating.

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Publication Details

Journal
Communications Engineering
Published
2025-02-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44172-025-00366-w
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.46
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article

Energy efficiency and carbon savings via a body grid

Shengyu Tao, Chongbo Sun, Qinglai Guo, Le Xie et al.
2 citations
Communications Engineering
Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure
1.46
article

Energy efficiency and carbon savings via a body grid

Shengyu Tao, Chongbo Sun, Qinglai Guo, Le Xie, Xuan Zhang, Daniel M. Kammen, Hongbin Sun, Jiahao Wang, Jiahe Xu, Daimeng Li, Ming Cheng
article en
2 citations

Abstract

The climate crisis necessitates decarbonization solutions that transform energy systems across all scales. While attention today focuses on utility-scale power systems, mini-or metro-scale grids, and at end-use device efficiency, the individual user scale remains underexplored. Just as with energy efficiency innovations tailored to micro-environments, body-scale energy savings offer new opportunities alongside technological and behavioral challenges. Here we propose a technique and a suite of potential innovations focused on the "body grid" in which devices, circuits, information network, human body and the environment interact within a universal framework to achieve energy savings, new functionality, and improved comfort. We present and test a prototype body grid supporting inter-device synergy and cooperation with external energy systems indoors and outdoors. This system yields substantial energy and economic savings, enhances personal control and comfort, and enables potential energy market participation. Simulation results demonstrate global energy savings of up to 50% for space cooling and heating.

Communications EngineeringVol. 4(1)
Harvard University (US), Taiyuan University of Technology (CN), University of California, Berkeley (US), Tsinghua University (CN)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 19%
Electric Vehicles and Infrastructure
1.46
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