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A Thermoelectric Bracelet To Maintain a Comfortable Body Temperature
rtoz writes "Heating or cooling certain parts of your body — such as applying a warm towel to your forehead if you feel chilly — can help maintain your perceived thermal comfort. Using that concept, four MIT engineering students developed a thermoelectric bracelet that monitors air and skin temperature, and sends tailored pulses of hot or cold waveforms to the wrist to help maintain thermal comfort. The product is now a working prototype. And although people would use the device for personal comfort, the team says the ultimate aim is to reduce the energy consumption of buildings, by cooling and heating the individual — not the building. The team estimates that if the device stops one building from adjusting its temperature by even just 1 degree Celsius, it will save roughly 100 kilowatt-hours per month."
Personal comfort involves more than just temperature.
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Thermoelectric coolers are typically controlled with PWM, to adjust their temperature. The polarity determines which direction the heat is pumped, the duty cycle of the PWM determines how much.
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
Well, it actually is the same amount of energy transfer, its just that our cooling systems aren't as efficient as our heating systems.
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