cook up power

[walkinTas]

So you're out in the bush and phone battery is flat. What are going to do? Why not just put the pot on and have a coffee? Well, here's an idea!

[John Sheridan]

I wonder how much of charge I can get in 6 minutes of heat, as a pot cosy cooker, I don't want to waste fuel to just to charge stuff, but the idea sounds great, but no sure if the weight vs extra batteries would be benifical.

Cheers.

[Franco]

I spotted that yesterday on KickStart .
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/120 ... t?ref=card
The project already has about 30k , it will go ahead at 50k.
Two things that come to mind are ;
1) what will be the loos of efficiency in gas usage by having that extra plate in-between the flame and the pot
2) considering that charging batteries via USB takes hours , how is that going to save weight compared with just taking extra batteries?
(Apple owners ignore this bit...)
Anyway I am waiting for the wood burning version :
http://www.biolitestove.com/BioLite.html
a bit daft for me because I use metho but I like the idea...
Franco

[Orion]

How does this compare to solar?

[Franco]

it's like night and day.

[Nuts]

They don't really seem practical at all for fuel stove bushwalking. 5/6m of 5w power would perhaps power up ad close an iphone. Solar is pretty inefficient but at least it can get 'something' happening. Something like these: http://www.suntrica.com/ss-w204.php ?

[Son of a Beach]

it's like night and day.

That cracked me up! Maybe I'm just easily amused.

[Franco]

I was wondering if someone would get it...
Seriously I have one on order , just to play with it.
One possibility is that power could be generated by just using a candle and some water in the pot. Snow might work better or just Tasmanian water will do...
You would then have the 1200mAh Li Ion batt connected to it and then use that battery to charge your device.
They also will have a 10W version using a bigger/heavier pot , that may do for a family or small group .
Franco

[Nuts]

er.. sorry, yes, i er...got it too

[Nuts]

I wonder if the same technology would work woven into a fabric, like sleeping bag shell eg.. to capture lost heat. Perhaps it needs a decent source to start the action. Interested to see what you think of it anyhow franco

[Orion]

I wonder if the same technology would work woven into a fabric, like sleeping bag shell eg.. to capture lost heat. Perhaps it needs a decent source to start the action. Interested to see what you think of it anyhow franco

Nuts, I suspect not. The power output is proportional to the temperature difference and it only generates a few watts when the difference is hundreds of degrees.

[Nuts]

Interesting.. perhaps the wrong technology, perhaps not that advanced. I do recall on 'Life after People' the calculation being something like 50w per person in generated heat... ie cities cool 3/4c without people.. a way to harness this heat loss from a sleeping bag or jacket?

[Orion]

Interesting.. perhaps the wrong technology, perhaps not that advanced. I do recall on 'Life after People' the calculation being something like 50w per person in generated heat... ie cities cool 3/4c without people.. a way to harness this heat loss from a sleeping bag or jacket?

It sounds like a great idea but thermodynamics limits how much useable energy you can extract from a heat source. The maximum efficiency is proportional to the temperature difference. This is why they like to heat steam to such a high temperature in turbines. In the case of a human exercising in the cold it is physically impossible to convert more than about 15% of the heat into useable energy. And the efficiencies of themoelectric materials are nowhere near the thermodynamic limit.

[hikin_jim]

Interesting idea. With wood, it might be more practical although I'd worry about melting the cord. The Biolite stove, although heavy, seems more promising. The TEG powers a fan. That's practical. With the Power Pot, you'd have to have a fire burning for several hours in order to charge your phone or iPad. That's not very practical at least for me on the style of bushwalks that I do.

HJ

[walkinTas]

One use I can think of, would be to run a small LED off the power cord. That way you'd have a pot with a built in light for cooking. Now that would be useful (efficiency aside).

open-powerpot.jpg (8.2 KiB) Viewed 3936 times

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LED-light.png (65.3 KiB) Viewed 3939 times

[flatfoot]

These are two very interesting ways to generate power:

The first is a wood/kindling powered stove that has a USB output for charging:

http://www.biolitestove.com/BioLite.html


The second is a pot with a heat-exchanger that can generate power:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1203647021/the-powerpot

It's tough to pick which I like the most, but I think it's the BioLite as you don't have to carry fuel. The main downside is that it relies on dry fuel, so using it in Tasmania could be problematic in some locations.

Mod: Similar topics merged