Energy Harvesting from Exercise Machines: Forward Converters with a Central Inverter

This thesis presents an active clamp forward converter for use in the Energy Harvesting From Exercise Machines project. Ideally, this converter will find use as the centerpiece in a process that links elliptical trainers to the California grid. This active clamp forward converter boasts a 14V-60V input voltage range and 150W power rating, which closely match the output voltage and power levels from the elliptical trainer. The isolated topology outputs 51V, higher than previous, non-isolated attempts, which allows the elliptical trainers to interact with a central grid-tied inverter instead of many small ones. The final converter operated at greater than 86% efficiency over most of the elliptical trainer's input range, and produced very little noise, making it a solid choice for this implementation.