Wednesday, May 20, 2015

DIY Heated Clothing?


Most of the content here consists of self-explanatory pictures, and hence, less description. J

So, you try to go to somewhere, getting well dressed, open the front door, and only discovered that it is quite cold outside. Sitting in your room with a bunch of idling 'treasure', you noticed that few of them desperately begging to be used. After digging around for a while, you found these:

Neglected wires:

Discarded Li-ion batteries:

Unwanted papers:

Then, you picked the best out of the bunch:

Staring at it for some time, thoughts pops up in your mind and then you do this to your bag:

Hook it up to the battery, and now it is a functioning heated bag, perfect for commuting. :D

But, what if you want to use it indoor? Wearing the bag all the time could be awkward...


Let's try wrap the wire:

Making it more rigid:

Looks good, why not make another one?


Here we go again:

Steadier frame:

Testing it with 3.7V li-ion battery:

At this stage, it is a heated pad suitable for any desired clothing, but, today is my laundry day, so no cloth to test. :/ 

Well, why not a DIY heated feet warmer?


Conclusion:
Since carbon ribbon is expensive, why not use readily available copper wire?

With total of around 8 meters of wire, it draws around 4 amps of current. That translates to roughly 0.1 ohms per meter. The heating power combined is near 15 watts. For the battery in use, maximum runtime estimated is to be around 2 hours. Not bad for practically free heater. :D

Sustainability anyone?


I would like to give special thanks to Yifeng Zhang and Jeneni Kasithasan for all of the material involved here.  ;)

Not forgetting University of Manchester for the spirit of sustainability. :D

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