01-12-2008, 06:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Body Heat To Charge Your Cell Phone
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35579/113/
"Remarkable research findings on energy conversion have been published in the most recent edition of Nature: Scientists believe to have discovered a much more efficient way to use silicon to convert heat into electricity � for use in a variety of products ranging from cars to portable electronics. Imagine a time in which you would not have to plug in your cellphone or iPod over night to recharge the battery. Instead you would power and charge a device simply by wearing it close to your body. The concept of converting waste heat into electricity isn�t exactly new, but it never really materialized due to efficiency hurdles. Now, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy�s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley think they may have found a key increase the conversion efficiency by a factor of 100."
I doubt this could ever be efficient dispense with taking chargers on trips, but it could extend the battery life while listenting to tunes on those long flights. I just know there are some puns in here waiting to get out, but I'll keep it a rated G post. :lol:
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01-12-2008, 09:30 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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As your shiney new hybrid car sits in the broiling summer sun in Mississippi, it could be charging its own battery. And it does so while you drive too :-)
I've no idea just exactly how much energy could be recovered this way, but I'm sure it's a whole heap more than most of us will ever find in our pockets.
Even better.
Use the same technology in the surface of the road, parking lots, the roof of buildings. 1 square foot might not make much power, but the millions of acres of largely empty roads and parking lots across the world would represent a massive source for 'free' power. .... OK how to I copyright/patent my fantastic idea? :-)
Now they just need to make it really cheap.
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