It’s quite hard to cope with the freezing cool in the winter and scorching sun in the summer. And some of us might have even struggled with colleagues and siblings to maintain the temperature of AC, fan, and heaters according to our liking. But running the AC, fan, coolers, and heaters to obtain comfortable working temperatures is also creating quite a loss of energy loss. Such type of heating/cooling system heats/cools the entire room to make the people inside it comfortable, which is not by far an efficient means. More than 10% of the global energy consumption goes on heating and cooling the buildings. So as a means to develop an efficient means of maintaining an individual’s body temperature within comfortable limits, researchers created an Armband, a wearable band which can keep your body at a perfect temperature.
The armband works as a personal heater/cooler that heats or cools the body temperature so as to maintain a comfortable temperature of the body. The patch of the armband can lower the body temperature up to 10-degree Celsius (or 50-degree Fahrenheit). With the capability to maintain a constant temperature during various circumstances, scientists claim it to be an efficient and simpler solution to the central heating/cooling system.
Thermoelectric alloys are equipped in the arm patch. These materials use electricity to create a temperature difference. Researchers have built this kind of patch by soldering small pillars of the thermoelectric alloys into the thin sheets of copper electrodes. These are then assembled into two stretchy elastomer sheets. A battery has been included in the system to inject the power. The electric current from the battery flows across the pillars of the armband, which drives heat from one sheet to another. When the heat goes to the sheet closest to the user’s skin, it raises the body temperature. If it is transferred to the sheet furthest away, warmth is removed from their skin and they cool down. In a test performed on a person, the patch was successfully able to maintain the body temperature at 32-degree Celsius when the background temperature was varied from 22-degrees to 36-degrees.
The armband uses a 5cm patch, which happens to be flexible and lightweight. They are said not to cause any sort of discomfort on the use. Researchers further say a patch uses 26 watts of power to cool the body temperature in a hot day. However, the scientists also said that around 100 of such patches will be required to cool an individual in extremely hot days. And for that, it will require a vest to cover the cover and cool the parts of the body like back and neck, which are susceptible to overheating. However, this would cause hundreds of pounds to manufacture a single unit. And this surely won’t be affordable to most of the population. So the scientists are now more focused on the ways to develop the product, which could cut some manufacturing costs.
