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?

[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.

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...

[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.