Body Heat Powered Flashlight

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Description

Short Project Description

My objective in my project was to create a flashlight that runs solely on the heat of the human hand. Using two Peltier tiles and the temperature difference between the palm of the hand and ambient air, I designed a flashlight that provides bright light without batteries or moving parts. My design is ergonomic, thermodynamically efficient, and only needs a five degree temperature difference to work and produce up to 5.4 mW at 5 foot candles of brightness.

I chose to investigate the aspect of human energy when I found out that we are like walking 100 Watt light bulbs. The goal of my project became a flashlight powered solely from the heat of the human hand. I decided to use Peltier tiles. If one side of these tiles is heated, and the other is cooled, electricity is produced. For my flashlight, I would be heating one side with the palm, and cooling the other side of the tile with a heat sink.

Details

Short Project Description

My objective in my project was to create a flashlight that runs solely on the heat of the human hand. Using two Peltier tiles and the temperature difference between the palm of the hand and ambient air, I designed a flashlight that provides bright light without batteries or moving parts. My design is ergonomic, thermodynamically efficient, and only needs a five degree temperature difference to work and produce up to 5.4 mW at 5 foot candles of brightness.

Summary

I chose to investigate the aspect of human energy when I found out that we are like walking 100 Watt light bulbs. The goal of my project became a flashlight powered solely from the heat of the human hand. I decided to use Peltier tiles. If one side of these tiles is heated, and the other is cooled, electricity is produced. For my flashlight, I would be heating one side with the palm, and cooling the other side of the tile with a heat sink.

I calculated that our bodies radiate 5.7 mW/cm2, but only 0.5 mW is needed to generate a bright light at the LED. I characterized both Peltier devices. Both produced power, but only a few millivolts. I need 2.5 V ! I had to convert my DC input to AC, and then run it through a oscillator circuit with a step up transformer. My final circuit had only 3 parts and produced a step up ratio of 100:1. So for 50 mV DC from the Peltiers I obtained 5 Volts AC which was sufficient to light the LED. The final design included mounting the Peltiers on a hollow aluminum Rectangle tube and acrylic sheet was wrapped on hollow aluminum rectangle sheet leaving aria ofpeltier that allowed ambient air to cool the tube. The palm wrapped around the peltier to warmed the peltier tiles. The result was a bright light at 5 degree Celcius of Peltier differential. The flashlight worked!

About Me

Hello, my name is Muhammad Wasim. I live in Pakistan. I have a great love for science, and have been competed many project about power generation and energy saving. A full size of ceiling fan 56” powered by cell phone battery. Cell phone battery charging system through walking for shoes with piezoelectric. Hydrogen fuel cell and hydrogen production from water with cheap way and running a bike through hydrogen. Cell phone charging system through radio signals coming from cell towers. I also submitted propeller design which is able reduce 70% noise and about 30 save energy to DJI drone company about a year ago with no replay. Now DJI is using these propellers in mavicpro platinum. This time I am going with the project; The Infinity Flashlight.

My next projects are power generating football 2 a bike helmet having personal air conditioning and heating system on demand. Creating water from air. Creating a energy harvester on mass base like Nikola Tesla.

My family has encouraged my interest in the sciences, and my first toy was a box of transistors. Nikola Tesla and Edison have both inspired me greatly as role models.

To be honest, I am not sure exactly what I want to study in the future just yet; I'm thinking it will probably be the Sciences. My passion is “Serve the humanity through advance science”.

Question / Proposal

Hypothesis: If I can capture enough heat from a human hand and convert it efficiently to electricity, then I can power a flashlight without any batteries or kinetic energy.

Objective: To make a flashlight that runs on the heat of the human hand.

Research

The website was dedicated to low voltage transistor oscillator...

Files

Plans for hackaday 2018.pdf

Business Plans for hackaday

Adobe Portable Document Format - 396.25 kB - 10/22/2018 at 08:38

Preview

Power calculaion from TXL group.pdf

This power calculation data is taken from txl group. What power can we generate with single 40mm peltier that have 254 Element TE Module.

Adobe Portable Document Format - 1.60 MB - 10/22/2018 at 02:04

Preview

make volt booster with LTC 3108.docx

document - 5.43 MB - 10/21/2018 at 11:56

Download

Project Description.docx

document - 16.38 kB - 10/21/2018 at 08:04

Download

Body Heat Project.docx

document - 6.41 MB - 10/21/2018 at 08:03

Download

Components

2 × Thermoelectric generator peltier size 40mm If you are making flashlight then you need two peltiers and for headlamp you need 4 peltiers

1 × volt boosting circuit from txl group https://customthermoelectric.com/elc-vb0410-1-unipolar-voltage-booster-40mv.html

1 ×  Acrylic Sheet Covered on Aluminum pipe leaving area of peltier 40mm local made

1 ×  Aluminum Rectangle pipe used for heat sink Aluminium rectangle pipe should be like heat sink. And For head lamp your need 4 heat sink

1 × 8mm 0.28W Strawhat White LED if you use 1 watt LED with having very smaller yellow dot that bright in LED.

Project Logs

Collapse

Creating series and Final the updated Headlamp
Wasim Sahu • 10/21/2018 at 15:44 • 0 comments

We will make series of peltiers wires --ive of one peltier and +ive wire of other peltier as so on at the end first and last two wires will remain left. These two red +ive wire and black --ive wire will be connected to volt boosting circuit's input side of the circuit. And LED wires +ive and --ive will be connected to the circuit +ve and --ve terminals respectively output side of the circuit. At the end we fix the LED lamp with heat sink using Silicone Sealant.
Final Result
Updated Body Heat Powered Headlamp Process
Wasim Sahu • 10/21/2018 at 14:55 • 0 comments

Sketch the Head lamp
Before we make a actual head lamp first we will make sketch then make a real as it.

Updated heat sink
This is almost the same headlamp like previous but having updated heat sinks light weight and having lags. Actually a heat sink having more legs give better results. In previous head lamp we used aluminum blocks of heat sink. Hard wire length 43 cm heat sink squire size
40.5mm we need. Strips size are respectively 22,1 cm and 32,2 cm
Other steps are as same as the previous headlamp these pictures will help you how to connect peltiers with heat sink using thermal past.
Fixing the LED lamp on right place
Wasim Sahu • 10/21/2018 at 14:15 • 0 comments

In last step we need a silicone sealant to fixing the LED lamp on right place. Now our body heat powered headlamp is ready to use.
Connecting LED with volt boosting circuit
Wasim Sahu • 10/21/2018 at 14:06 • 0 comments

LED Lamp +ve and –ve wires we will connect with volt boosting circuit’s output side. +ve wire with +ve side of circuit and –ve wire with –ve side of circuit.
Peltiers connection volt boosting circuit
Wasim Sahu • 10/21/2018 at 13:55 • 0 comments

These remaining red wire +ve and black wire –ve will be connected on volt boosting circuit’s on input side red wire with +ve and black wire –ve side of circuit.
cuting extra wires from peltiers
Wasim Sahu • 10/21/2018 at 13:47 • 0 comments

After this we will cut extra wires from peltiers . Now will make series of connections red wire will be connected with black wire. Just we will leave first and last wire for connecting them with volt boosting circuit
Thermal past on text printed side of peltiers
Wasim Sahu • 10/21/2018 at 13:38 • 0 comments

Now we will past a thermal past on text printed side of peltier and also on aluminum blocks one by one.
Building Process of Head Lamp
Wasim Sahu • 10/21/2018 at 13:31 • 0 comments

For making body heat powered lamp first we need 4 aluminum blocks for heat sink propos. In 4 aluminum blocks we make at least 2 wholes. Then We will connect 4 blocks with hard wire passing by all 4 blocks wholes. First and last side of hard wire will fix two strips with this our headlamp will easily be hold on our forehead.
Body Heat Powered HeadLamp A Hope Of Feuture
Wasim Sahu • 10/01/2018 at 10:06 • 0 comments

If We see of any where almost all electronics things having battery are need to be charge.

There are a lot of moment came in our life when we are away from power source and there are a lot of people who do not have electricity and solar is not available for 24 hour. At night also batteries required for charging during day time. But it is not on demand when you need at night. Many of our children can not get their education because they do not have light at night. I hope with this technology they have big hope for education also they will take part in science and technology and make our feature more bright.
Some Instruction For Better Results
Wasim Sahu • 07/14/2018 at 11:30 • 0 comments

Thermal Paste

For better results it more important to use thermal paste in between aluminium rectangle pipe and peltier. With this aluminium will keep the peltier at room temperature.

Heat sink

Your aluminium rectangle pipe should be like a heat sink. This will also keep the peltier at room temperature all the time.

LED Selection

If you have Strawhat 8mm 0.25W LED its ok. Actually I find 1W special LED has better results not every 1W LED. If you find this 1W LED then take other strawhat LED is ok. Every 1W LED has a yellow colour dot in its centre. Always take that 1W LED that has very small yellow colour dot. You can see in the picture yellow dot. The LEDs having mark are ok and having cross are not ok.

View all 14 project logs

Build Instructions

Collapse

Thermal Paste

For better results it more important to use thermal paste in between aluminium rectangle pipe and peltier. With this aluminium will keep the peltier at room temperature.

Heat sink

Your aluminium rectangle pipe should be like a heat sink. This will also keep the peltier at room temperature all the time.

LED Selection If 1W having

If you have Strawhat 8mm 0.25W LED its ok. Actually I find 1W special LED has better results not every 1W LED. If you find this 1W LED then take other strawhat LED is ok. Every 1W LED has a yellow colour dot in its centre. Always take that 1W LED that has very small yellow colour dot. You can see in the picture yellow dot. The LEDs having mark are ok and having cross are not ok.

Discussions

deltaterminal01 wrote 05/09/2022 at 18:00

For me, the videos at the beginning of the post were marked as unavailable, would be nice if you could solve this problem.

Are you sure? yes | no

Wasim Sahu wrote 10/28/2018 at 07:11

Dear Florian Festi. I hope you will be fine. You are right my previous flashlight and headlamp do not have a right heat sink. Where the heat sink is the main part of flashlight and headlamp. Therefore I also updated the headlamp and made its better heat sink. Yes more fins on heat sink are better. With this now our head lamp is light weight and has removed all issues that you have discussed.

In instruction is also explain about heat sink.

Thanks.

Now our infinity flashlight is arrow electronics certified. Its arrow certification badge is available on indiegogo page. Soon we will launch a campaign on indiegogo. Here is the certification badge and our page on indiegogo.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-flashlight-powered-by-your-own-body-heat#/

Thank you very much for your helpful information

Are you sure? yes | no

Florian Festi wrote 10/02/2018 at 08:57

This is a really cool project. But you have to be really careful not to fool yourself. At the beginning it will work better as the heat sink is still cool. But it will heat up over time until it reaches an equilibrium. Only then you will get the - probably much lower - "for ever" output.

Both of your builds don't look like they are really good heat sinks. They lack cooling fins that provide enough contact area with the surrounding air. The ventilation holes in the flashlight are just much too small. And the heat sinks at the head lamp are just massive block of aluminium that have a lot of mass but very little surface. They can probably improved - and lightened - a lot my cutting slots into them. For natural convection the slots need to be much wider (may be 5-10mm) than the remaining fins. Have a look at electronic heat sinks that are meant to be used without a fan (or actually use them).

To get an idea of the actual performance you need to use the lamps for a prolonged time - like an hour or two - or preheat the heat sinks to body temperature and then see to which performance they can cool down to.

Are you sure? yes | no

solutions4circuits wrote 08/10/2018 at 01:56

Why would you make this misleading statement "I couldn't find any idea specific to my topic of the thermoelectric flashlight at all" when a simple search reveals the Google Science Fair entry by a 15 year old girl, FIVE years ago? https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/body-heat-powered-flashlight-takes-teen-to-google-science-fair-1.1317745

Are you sure? yes | no

Roger wrote 08/09/2018 at 00:12

thanks Wasim and George . I have some components now I will give it a go.

Are you sure? yes | no

James Driver wrote 07/06/2018 at 16:00

I have heard many times that the human body looses most of it's heat from the head. Why not make a elastic strapped unit that touches the forehead? I imagine you could harvest more heat and you gain the convenience of having your hands free.

Are you sure? yes | no

Wasim Sahu wrote 07/10/2018 at 19:10

Dear James Driver you are right i have tested this experiment. if we compare hand and forehead . forehead has batter resuls i also created for forehead. For this i used 4 peltiers and 4 led lights. soon i will upload this.

Are you sure? yes | no

prosto wrote 07/05/2018 at 18:50

how many lumens this flashlight send?

is possible to add 2 panels?

Are you sure? yes | no

[deleted]

[this comment has been deleted]

Wasim Sahu wrote 07/12/2018 at 11:40

First thanks to think me able for opinion. Some information about power conversion is uploaded in my Logs. Where you self can make volt booster 20mv to 5v. I cannot tell in comments with pictures.

These are some links I hope will help you

20mv to 5v
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Thermal-Energy-Harvesting-power-supply-w-LTC3108-and-supercapacitor-storage-/331654685113

.7v to 5v I self have this converter but I have shipping problem.

https://www.amazon.in/ASIANWORLD-1-5V-Voltage-Boost-Module/dp/B00ZA6URE8

here you self can make but convert from .7v to 5v

http://www.instructables.com/id/Adjustable-Voltage-Step-up-07-55V-to-27-55V/

Are you sure? yes | no

Rochesimpson wrote 06/16/2018 at 16:47

interesting project and well documented. Could you improve the thermal pickup of the peltier tiles if they were curved to fit the palm better? Can you bend them? I was thinking this idea might be incorporated into a conventional flashlight shaped device.

Are there higher efficiency leds or are they all about the same?

Are you sure? yes | no

Wasim Sahu wrote 07/09/2018 at 20:01

yes bro every thing is possible soon i will upload about it and more advance things. sorry all other bro i will replay one by one. key board not working.typing by mouse therefore. thanks for your love

Are you sure? yes | no

Sam McLeod wrote 06/13/2018 at 09:47

This would be very handy to leave just inside your garage or shed door, also I could see it being useful left in the boot of your car, there’s a lot of value in not having to remember to keep it charged or batteries on hand.

Are you sure? yes | no

Wasim Sahu wrote 06/11/2018 at 17:04

First all members heartily thank you very much to like the project. the circuit called ultra low volt booster dc to dc. it can convert 20mv to 2.5v . First this circuit takes dc power from peltier then convert it to ac so ac is boosted then again it convert the ac boosted to dc then you can used it for led or any thing that is low power you like to operate. for best results you use thermal past between aluminum heat sink and peltier. Good heat sink gives more best result. The product is also arrow electronic certified these are some links about the light.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-flashlight-powered-by-your-own-body-heat#/

http://wasimtech.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqd43YdkXwc

Are you sure? yes | no

Ryan H. wrote 06/08/2018 at 18:26

This is super cool!

Just out of curiosity, what is the response time from holding it to full brightness? Does it take a little bit before the pelt warms up to light up, or is it pretty much instant?

Are you sure? yes | no

GH wrote 06/08/2018 at 00:29

This is an awesome idea - nice project! It's made me wonder if I could make something similar with a homemade Joule-thief like booster circuit since I already have a peltier tile.

Are you sure? yes | no

Matei P. G. wrote 06/07/2018 at 21:58

Awesome project! Also a good lawyer can get some money from those assholes stealing your design. Never submit full plans, just videos with the working thing. Learned this the hard way, like you!

Are you sure? yes | no

Roger wrote 06/07/2018 at 03:47

Hi - I love this idea. Why does the input need to be AC? I thought LEDS were DC .

Are you sure? yes | no

George Albercook wrote 06/08/2018 at 17:59

You are correct. The LED does need DC. Since the voltage from the peltier is too low to light the LED he had to step it up. The circuit that does that is an AC circuit. Once it converts the low voltage DC from the peltier to AC it can use a transformer to step the voltage up then rectify it back to DC.

In general this type of circuit is call a DC- to - DC converter

Note that when the transformer steps the voltage up it also steps the current down. No magic here.

Overall there is some loss. In the data sheet for the DC-DC converter that he used

https://customthermoelectric.com/media/wysiwyg/Electronics_files/VB_Data_Sheet_A1109.pdf

there is an example calculation showing only 63% efficiency.

Hope that helps

Are you sure? yes | no

Wasim Sahu wrote 07/12/2018 at 12:03

Dear Roger

Actually peltiers output is about 30mv DC. LEDs Direct from peltiers cannot work. LED works from 2v to DC 2.5v. In between of peltier and LED we need a volt boosting converter. Converter directly cannot boost volts from DC. In first it needs to convert in AC. Where small transformer boost the volts in 2.5v AC. LED need DC again converter convert it DC. Actually without AC we cannot boot volt. You know transformer works in AC. Therefore this boost converter is called DC to DC. This converter Take DC 20mv and gives 2.5v DC use able for LED.

Are you sure? yes | no

Body Heat Powered Flashlight

Description

Details