The "Power Pot" Energy Harvesting Thermoelectric Generator

The Power Pot at Campsite

Advances in materials science and semiconductor engineering have given us powerful computing, communications, and sensing devices that require relatively little energy to operate. Consequently, it has recently become practical to harvest small but useful amounts of energy from the environment around us and put it to use powering our gadgets.

For example, piezoelectric devices that convert mechanical motion (e.g., vibration) to electricity are being used now to power sensors that monitor the health of structures or machinery. The vibrations of the system the sensor is attached to our embedded in, such as a bridge or an industrial motor, provide the mechanical energy that the piezoelectric transducer converts to electricity. If the sensor detects a problem or pending failure, the user can be alerted over a wireless connection.

Solar cells are another, more obvious example but have the disadvantage of generating power only during daylight hours, of course, and work best on sunny days. On yet another front, some scientists and engineers are developing commercial products that capture the ambient radio frequency energy of broadcast television, radio stations, and cellular phone systems and convert it to direct current for powering ultra-low power electronics.

The engineers at Power Practical are harvesting environmental energy by exploiting yet another energy conversion process called the Seebeck Effect, in which a current flows across the junctions of two joined, dissimilar metals when they experience a temperature differential. We've just learned about Power Practical's Power Pot, which generates electricity for recharging phones, GPS receivers, and so on by converting the thermal energy of heated water. Pack a Power Pot along with you on a camping trip and you can keep your mobile devices working even without access to an electrical outlet.

The Power Pot consists of an aluminum pot with a Seebeck Effect module built into it, and a voltage regulator module that functions as the battery charger. The voltage regulator is connected to the output of the Seebeck module with a high-temperature cable. The voltage regulator's output is a standard USB power connection at 5Volts supplying up to 1Amp; i.e., 5Watts. Fill the pot with water, heat it over a campfire or campstove, plug your mobile device into the charger with a USB cable, and it'll be good to go in awhile.

A technical explanation of the Power Pot's operation is given here.

The Power Pot is yet another innovative product funded through a Kickstarter campaign. It retails for $149. We will be watching to see how it fares in the marketplace in the months to come.

Power Generating Soccer Ball!

Soccket Power Generating Soccer Ball

Through the website of one of our readers, a product designer from the Bay Area industrial design group Focus PDM, we found out about this very ingenious power-generating soccer ball, the Soccket.The Soccket is an "energy-harvesting" device... by means of an internal electricity-generating mechanism, it converts the kinetic energy imparted to it when kicked or thrown into electricity that is used to charge an internal battery. A socket under a flap on the ball is provided for connection of the battery  to a cellphone, an LED lamp, a water purifier, etc.

So, you have some fun playing soccer, and then recover some of the energy you expended in the form of electricity... cool.

The Soccket started life as a class project of Jessica Matthews and Julia Silverman in 2008 when they were Harvard undergrads. They realized that a product like this would be both fun and useful for people in the developing world who don't have easy access to an electrical grid. So, after graduation, they set up shop in New York City and put together a team to form Uncharted Play, with a mission to design and develop what they call "FUNctional" products that bridge the worlds of play and need. You can read about the genesis of the Soccket and Uncharted Play here.

The design team at Focus PDM worked with Uncharted Play to redesign the Soccket for improved performance and greater efficiency, and durability. Check out this excellent interview with Julia Silverman at Popular Mechanics about Uncharted Play's plans to distribute the Soccket globally, while you are at it. And do visit the Uncharted Play website... it is beautifully designed, has some info about how the Soccket works, and news about more FUNctional products that are in the pipeline.