Orange, UK a cellular provider in the United Kingdom has unveiled one the coolest devices we’ve seen in a long time.
At a recent festival in the UK, Orange provided the attendees with a novel way to keep their iopds and mobile phones charged up during the event. Utilizing a Wellies rain boot, coupled with a thermoelectric charger, the boots would charge your device as you sloshed around the festival. The Orange Power Wellies, created in collaboration with renewable energy experts GotWind, use a unique ‘power generating sole’ that converts heat from your feet into an electrical current. This ‘welectricity’ can then be used to recharge your mobile phone. Twelve hours of stomping through the festival in your Orange Power Wellies will give you enough power to charge a mobile phone for one hour. To increase the length of time you can charge your phone for, simply hot step it to the dance tent because the hotter your feet get, the more energy you produce. After a full days festival frolics you can plug your phone into the power output at the top of the welly and use the energy that has been generated throughout the day to charge your phone. The power collected in the ‘power generating sole’ is collected via a process known as the ‘Seebeck’ effect. Inside the power generating sole there are thermoelectric modules constructed of pairs of p-type and n-type semiconductor materials forming a thermocouple. These thermocouples are connected electrically forming 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 topside of the ceramic wafer and cold is applied on the opposite side, from the cold of the ground, electricity is generated. It’s a great sustainable way of powering up devices without tapping into the power grid. The only problem is that Orange, UK does not seem to have any plans to market the product to consumers in the immediate future.
Photo Courtesy: Orange, UK
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