Impact & Feasibility

What's the impact?

Millions of multi-family and multi-story buildings waste small but valuable streams of energy every day — energy that could be captured and reused to cut costs, lower emissions, and help reach net-zero goals. Trash chutes and the massive airflow in elevator shafts create hidden motion and impact that today vanishes as noise, heat, or vibration. My innovative systems capture that lost motion and turn it into clean, reusable electricity — helping buildings cut costs and contribute to local climate goals.

Local Case Study: Miami, FL
Miami has over 4,000 multi-family buildings four stories or higher (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020).
If just 10% of these buildings installed this system:

• 400 buildings × ~12,775 kWh/year = ~5.1 million kWh/year saved

• CO₂ avoided: ~2,100 metric tons/year — equal to taking 400 cars off the road or planting 97,750 trees every year.

Scaling Nationally
The U.S. has over 22 million multi-family units.
If only 1% of these units were in buildings using this system:

• 220,000 units × ~58 kWh/month = ~153 million kWh/year saved

• CO₂ avoided: ~63,000 metric tons/year — same as taking 13,700 cars off the road or planting 1.3 million trees.

* U.S EPA Emissions Factor:
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average kWh of grid power creates ~0.92 lbs CO₂. (EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator).

If just one building can harvest 35 kWh/day, that means,

• One building can power a 2-bedroom apartment for a full day.

• 1,000 buildings: 35,000 kWh/day — enough to power 1,000 two-bedroom apartments every day.

  That’s real, usable energy that no longer comes from fossil fuels.

How It Works

System 1: Trash Chute Micro-Energy Recovery

• Impact Base Plate: captures impact energy when bags land.

• Friction Panels: recover sliding energy on chute walls.

• Rotating Cylinders: convert extra motion into rotational energy.

• Simple turbines or generators feed captured energy to the building’s shared loads.

System 2: Elevator Shaft Airflow Recovery

• Special turbine arrays mounted inside shafts.

• Moving elevator cars push air past turbines, spinning micro-generators.

• Harvested power stored or used for hallway lighting, elevators, or shared amenities.

Market Readiness:

The core parts — impact plates, friction panels, rotating cylinders, and small elevator shaft turbines — can be made using standard, low-cost materials. These can be installed as part of regular maintenance upgrades, or added during new construction at minimal extra cost. Control units and small battery storage already exist in other green retrofits, making adoption practical and affordable.

Technical Feasibility

• Retrofit-Ready: Designed for both new & existing shafts.

• Low Disruption: Installs can be done floor-by-floor.

• Durability: Enclosed, no external weather exposure.

• Maintenance: Basic inspections; turbines & plates have minimal moving parts.

Who Would Use It?

• Building owners & HOAs: Cut energy bills, lower carbon footprint, boost property value.

• Developers: Improve green ratings and marketability for new buildings.

• Cities & policy makers: Scale up clean energy and waste reduction goals.

• Green contractors & investors: Access new retrofit markets.

Why It Is Feasible?

• Uses proven mechanical and electrical parts — nothing exotic.

• Retrofit-ready for most trash chutes and elevator shafts.

• Easy to maintain alongside existing building systems.

• Low upfront cost compared to lifetime energy savings and green credit incentives.

Reference Projects

This concept builds on proven ideas like:

• Regenerative elevator drives: major manufacturers (e.g., Otis, KONE) already recover braking energy — my concept expands this by harvesting airflow.

• Kinetic flooring: existing tech captures footsteps in busy walkways — same micro-energy principle applied to trash chutes & elevator shafts.

Provisional Patent Filed

A provisional patent is filed & pending to protect the core design and installation method. This allows further technical development, partnerships, and licensing discussions with owners and green technology investors.

Proven, Practical, Needed

Most clean energy discussions focus only on adding solar panels or wind turbines. But we have ignored the micro-energy flowing inside our cities. By capturing this hidden motion — from trash chutes and elevators — we unlock a new layer of clean power and CO₂ savings with low-cost retrofits that anyone can adopt.

Together, these practical, scalable systems help buildings do more with what they already have — turning everyday waste into everyday savings, for owners and the planet alike. Let’s harvest what we’re already wasting — and make our buildings, cities, and future more sustainable, one hidden stream at a time.

Data sources: EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator, USDA Forest Service, U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2020.