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Rubber Boots Charge Your Phone
andylim writes "UK wireless provider Orange and renewable energy experts GotWind have come up with a prototype pair of power-generating rubber boots. Inside the power-generating soles of the boots are thermoelectric modules constructed of pairs of p-type and n-type semiconductor materials forming thermocouples, which are connected electrically to form an array of multiple thermocouples (thermopile). They are then sandwiched between two thin ceramic wafers. When the heat from the foot is applied on the top side of the ceramic wafer and cold is applied on the opposite side, from the cold of the ground, electricity is generated."
Now you can look goofy AND charge your phone all at once!
Periodically someone will come out with one of these "Clothing that generates electricity" (usually based on kinetic energy, in this case on body heat) inventions and the press will briefly cover it as a novelty item, then forget it. The clothing product in question will always be expensive, uncomfortable, prone to break and malfunction, and unable to generate enough electricity to be of any practical use. People either don't buy it at all or stop buying it the second the newspaper story fades from view. They stop buying it for the same reason that I ditched my "generator powered" light on my bicycle when I was a kid (you remember, the one that attached to the tire and used its kinetic energy to power the bike's headlight)--because it doesn't work worth a damn.
I just hope those much-touted wind turbines that are all the rage now work a lot better than my old bike light at converting kinetic energy to electrical.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
That sounds like a good way to solve energy problems and overweightness.
Assuming the laws of thermodynamics are still intact, they also keep your feet cool. So, not so good for cold climates - which is unfortunate, because that's when the temperature gradient is highest and they'd work the best.
The term for this type of electricity generation is the Seebeck effect. Typically a very small voltage is generated per pn junction, so many hundreds of junctions are placed in series to generate a significant voltage.
Remember LA Gear shoes? The ones with the flashing piezoelectric lights that blinked when you took a step? If we can harness the power of millions of sugar-crazed kids, we can solve the world's energy problem! There is probably already enough HFCS to power this revolution.
this
then you could warm your feet and charge your phone. Or fill a fanny pack with the mix, so it is contained.
Waiting for the other shoe to...
. . . the story becomes slightly more amusing.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I used to think that this would be a good idea... then I got cold feet :)
New technology aside, I've always found rubber boots to be excellent for generating what I like to call "zapping power".
Nerd Rock In Progress
It'll cool your feet in the winter when it works at its best and in the summer the difference between warm sidewalks and the inside of the boot will not generate any electricity. This means that when you don't mind to wear it, it does not work. When it works, it causes so much discomfort that you choose not to... Mmm.
!
Boots that don't keep my feet warm because they depend on heat flowing across a thermocouple as quickly as possible to produce electricity? That sounds great! I'll take two.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
So pathetic. This is not a way to generate electricity, but to destroy it.
You see those "p-n" junctions did not appear out of thin air-- they're the result of using scads of electricity to heat silicon to the melting point, extract it into perfect crystals, then slice it, anneal it again in an electric furnace, then more hours at 1200C to diffuse in minute amounts of p and n dopants, then more electricity to slice, dice, solder, and cement these into usable devices.
And in the end you have some very expensive, in both dollars and energy used, heat to microamps of electricity converters. And you can easily compute exactly how much electricity you get back given say a 10 degree temperature difference between the warm and slightly less warm sides. It's miniscule. Microwatts per square centimeter. Even if you wore these for 10,000 hours, you're nowhere near making back the amount of electricity, not to mention the $$$, it cost to make these things.
My momma said these are my magic shoes...
So, under ideal conditions (exercising in a cold wet environment) you get 1 hour of "charging" - say, how much is that in use time? - for 12 hours of activity?
It's a sad state of affairs when you can't even market your snake oil convincingly. Heck, if you're going to get some free advertising from a joke product that you have no intention of making, you might as well push the boat out and claim that it heals the ozone layer and turns CO2 into unicorn burps.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Add these with your nylon socks and underwear and wearable solarpower packs and you'll never need to juice up again. Screw wierding modules, just point your hip mounted crotch sock and fry the enemy with your static charge. Maaaau'dii*ZAAAAP*$%%"£..
Of course it only works in bloody cold, damp England!
*** Don't be dull.***
In my own experiments with themoelectric generation, I was unable to get more than a few tens of milliwatts from such a setup.
I connected up a cheap peltier module (TEC1-12709), 4cm * 4cm (1.5in * 1.5in), to a heatsink+fan with some heatsink paste, and pressed my palm against the other side, the maximum power output was a few milliwatts, and additionally my palm got cold very quickly (I altered the resistive loading to ensure I reached the maximum power point.) When I used a metal tray of boiling water instead of my palm, I could just about get 50mW (at less than 1V).
It would seem that these cheap modules aren't very efficient at generating power from low heat differentials, so even you used enough of these modules to get enough power, you'd end up with very cold feet very quickly (and then no more power)
This story is shocking, just shocking.
So maybe we'll all be (re)booting our phones on a regular basis - not just those people running WinMo!!
AT&ROFLMAO
>> Rubber Boots Charge Your Phone
They would seem to have locked up the footwear market in D.C..
oh dear, I had pictures of a pipe from the boots into your trousers when the firm's name of Gotwind was read....I must get out more :-)
"I think so Brain; but where are we going to find rubber boots in our size?"
These won't work... unless they can work in reverse. i.e. hot pavement is much hotter than your foot, so perhaps the difference in temperature can still generate a charge. Relying on the street to be cooler is flawed is great if you're always in an air conditioned building
So, how little power are we talking? With the flushless toilets I see more of, I wondered what sort of power could be generated from the 98.6F urine against the porcelain and concrete wall behind it (or incoming water lines for sink/flushables). Figured there was some cistern below with a boyant liquid topper that could sit for a while and give heat. Gives a new meaning to 'trickle charge'.
The generator is on a small spring that keeps it away from the wheel until you apply the brakes. The brakes are cable operated. You add an additional cable that pulls the generator hub to the wheel simultaneously with the braking action. Just a lever and a pivot. It would be a typical idler/simple clutch looking arrangement.
It's actually a good idea, combined with rechargeable batteries. Of course I am also in favor or just having an integrated small solar panel someplace to keep the batts topped off while the bike is parked. The dang thing with bikes and accessories though is thieves. They are relentless, and cops don't give a flip about bicycle thievery. I know back when I was really a fanatic and riding a lot, I just took my bike in almost everyplace, until I got kicked out. It's amazing how many places you can get away with it, just by being bold. I even ran my bike into office buildings and up elevators and so on, rather than leave it parked and cabled outside.
Reminds me of the song "These Boots Are Made for Talkin"... OK the original title has "Walkin".
:).
I'm too lazy to mangle the lyrics accordingly. Perhaps someone else can?
Thats cool and all, but can they power my stillsuit, will they alert the sandworms of my location, and are they compatible with the foot controls of my ornithopter?
Could you build one? Could you build a reliable one, such that the friction kicks in seamlessly when necessary? More to the point, could you produce them for a price that people were willing to pay?
Yeah, just this, only that, a simple matter of the other.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
>> heat from the foot is applied on the top side and cold from the ground is applied on the opposite side
Cold from the ground? I live in Phoenix you insensitive clod.
My feet get painfully hot from walking or even just applying pressure to my feet if I am wearing any footwear. If this thing cools my feet, it's a godsend.
Next on tap... energy produced from your schwetty balls.
"Charging up!"
Now we know what power source the Tesla Troopers used.
Nokia should have made these.
My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
I had come up with an idea to make car tires like this so driving truely generates electricity for those batteries. I didnt know how to do it yet but now I know its possible!
...since they're the heaviest users of cellphones. And (at least in the US) they are, for all intents and purposes, the only ones who wear rubber boots nowadays.
---PCJ
Won't work in Phoenix.
When's the energy break even point? Are they as efficient as solar panels? If I walk a mile in someone else's shoes then ....................
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
Maybe it's not something you could retrofit, but at the manufacturing stage, it wouldn't be that hard to include an electric signal when the brakes were applied.
You couldn't completely eliminate the friction, but the majority of the resistance comes from the generator, so you'd have some loss of power all the time, but only a significant loss of power when you're breaking (when you actually want it).
The show-stopper is that it would produce bugger-all power, coz bikes don't travel fast enough and stop way too quick to give off much power when they brake.
Is 1563649 a prime number?