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."

Comments

Waders are back in style

[Drakkenmensch]

Now you can look goofy AND charge your phone all at once!

Slow news day?

[elrous0]

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.

Re:Slow news day?

[datapharmer]

If the light didn't work well for you it was adjusted poorly or you weren't riding fast enough. The only problems with them were:
a) You had to ride relatively quickly to generate much light
b) It added a significant amount of friction to your wheel meaning you had to ride harder and
c) The light stopped when you stopped.

That said, a few modifications such as adding a capacitor to even out the light (acting as a voltage regulator), changing the light bulb to LED, and lowering the friction caused by the generator wheel and it would probably work phenomenally well. I was happy even back then though.

Re:Slow news day?

[wwwillem]

I ditched my "generator powered" light on my bicycle

Those are not a temporary fad that doesn't really work. In Holland (where there are more bicycles than people) those dynamo's are the standard way (at least were before LED lights) of powering bicycle lights.

It was the next progression after the carbid lantern, so I guess that started around WWII, maybe even earlier. At least I'm from 1957 and I can't remember anything else.

Re:Slow news day?

[biryokumaru]

Because regenerative braking would be several orders of magnitude more complex and expensive to implement than a simple permanent magnet generator.

Re:Slow news day?

[SharpFang]

...yes, and essentially only inexpensive white LED put an end to them.

The battery-powered lamps were a gimmick, too expensive in use (expensive batteries, note rechargeables were scarce, expensive and poor capacity back then too!) and too short-living (bulb energy draw) for any longer routes. The dynamo was the standard, sure it put extra friction but finely tuned the friction was well within acceptable standards and the light strength was unparallelled.

A dynamo gives about 5W at 5V on standard use. That is 1 Ampere, which means state-of-the-art(then) 1000mAh rechargeables, or a set of standard 3 bulky A-size 1.5V batteries could run the lamp at the same strength for about a hour. Which was pathetic.

Even today dynamo still has its place - as a backup. If batteries die in your LED lamp, you can switch to dynamo. If you ride downhill, you can ride faster because the faster you ride the stronger the light is (and it's much stronger than your average bicycle LED lamp), and it gives an extra braking power. And normally you switch it off.

For further reading...

[dtmos]

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.

Re:For further reading...

[TeknoHog]

Would it be possible to put them on a condom?

Guy in bar to babe: "Hey. My phone died. Would you like to go and charge it?"

The effect uses a temperature difference to generate power, so unless you are doing a dead fish, it wouldn't help much.

Re:For further reading...

[somersault]

And then the frigidity of her response helps to create the thermal difference required for charging your phone? Good idea!

Unfortunately

[NtwoO]

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.

Oh good, just what I need

[drinkypoo]

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.