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Self-Warming Jackets
jeffy124 writes: "Those of you in the frigid north who find their coats unfulfilling of their duties may be interested in a self-warming jacket. By using steel microfibres woven into the fabric plus a lithium battery, heat is actually generated to as much as 114 degrees fahrenheit. The jackets, sadly, come with a nasty price -- US$500. Among those interested in purchasing are skiers (including some Olympians), and the Military."
Wow! These were shown in Mens Health magazine here in the UK before Christmas...
Slashdot/CNN need to get with the times or get more healthy! Check it out!
MET 5 Jacket
The $150 pants you're talking about are
probably Goretex or a Goretex clone that
make the pants both waterproof and
breathable. Cheap nonbreathable pants
are fine if you aren't exerting yourself
much, but you work up a sweat, you'll be as
wet on the inside as on the outside.
Normally I wear waterproof/breathable stuff
when I'm in the mountains. I'll take the
cheap stuff only if I want to travel really
compact and light (i.e. trail-run), and I'll
take the cheap stuff in addition if I am
glissading.
Never use cotton in cold/wet conditions.
It is very poor at keeping heat in when
wet. And it is slow to dry. Polyester
or fancy wicking fabrics function much better.
You can find cheap polyester shirts/underpants
for near the same price as cotton.
http://www.gerbing.com/
Nothing but highest recommendations. It appears it will last a lifetime. I have had this suit for this winter season and the quality appears to exceed BMW's heated vest which I have abused for two years without fail. After tearing up a widder in less than a month and fixing it several times until it could be used no more, I would go with nothing else besides BMW or Gerbing. And the heat output is incredible. Most importantly I know it will not fail on long trips. In the cold weather on a motorcycle in the middle of nowhere, quality is the difference between life and death.
My suit has electric heated socks (which are uncomfortable by themselves,) the two piece suit which can be comfortably worn over street clothes, electric gloves (never leave home without them,) and a the collar in the jacket has extra heating and sticks inside the helmet to keep my sinuses warm. It works and is worth the investment if you like the snow.
First off let me say that I wear electric clothing on a regular basis. Of course, mine is the somewhat low-tech variety. More cheap electric blanket, less lithium-ion.
The main reason I wear them, is for when you need to be stationary in the elements for an extended period of time. Sure, I'd be warm if I were moving about, but if you have to sit still for 60 minutes it's going to take a *LOT* of insulation to equal the warmth of a good electric vest.
There's another subtle difference between heavy insulation and active heating. Alterness. You'd be amazed at how fast your reaction time sinks when you get a little cold. That's not so bad when your hiking along a trail, but if you're driving a motorcycle (like me) or holding a gun (soliders) then a half second can be critical.
I ride year round and it's frequently cold enough to put on my electric vest under my motorcycle jacket. These things are a life-saver and they're pretty low-tech, with fine wires laid out in an electric blanket configuration surrounding your torso. Of course, I guess this approach to keeping warm is much easier to pull off when you're riding a high-current, 400+ pound battery on wheels...
Ionized Li, in or out of solution, is still lithium, that's true, but since it's outer shell (2s2) is emptied, it attains a positive charge and BEHAVES ELECTRICALLY LIKE HELIUM, AN INERT GAS.
P.S.: In Sodium Chloride, (NaCl or Na+ Cl-) the Sodium (an alkali metal from group 1, or 1A as they used to call it) surrenders it's outermost electron to empty it's outer shell (and thereby stabilize and become unreactive) over to the Chlorine atom, making a sodium (Na+) cation, or positive ion, and the chlorine atom (chlorine being in group 17 or 7A, and a Halogen) becomes a chlorine (Cl-) anion. They both achieve the same electron configurations, with 17 + 19 or 32 electrons in total. Disolving in water does not separate them.
The electron configuration is (in energylevel sublevel numberofelectrons):
1s2 2s2 2px2 2py2 2pz2 3s2 2px2 3py2 3pz2, which as it happens, is argon (Ar) another inert, Noble Gas.
Litium does the same thing, but I think it is with Hydrogen to form Lithium Oxide, (Li2O) but I'm not sure, we haven't covered that in class yet.
Batteries don't do well in cold weather. More importantly, the colder it gets (and the more you want your jacket to be warm), the worse the jacket's battery will perform.
Some form of fuel cell would be just the ticket:
Laptop Methanol Fuel Cells Promised This Week
It should be easy to convince the propane-toting crowd that a fuel cell is a sensible way to supply heat to a jacket.
And you'd never again have to face that sinking feeling, high on an alpine ridge, that what you thought was a jacket battery was actually the battery you used to complete that chunk of code during the flight out...