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Battery Less Flashlights: Peltier Effect

Ann Makosinski developed a battery-less flashlight that harnesses thermoelectric and Peltier effects to generate electricity from body heat differences as small as 5 degrees Celsius. She stacked ceramic Peltier tiles inside a hollow PVC tube to create small amounts of electricity from temperature differences, and used transformers to increase the voltage enough to power LEDs. The flashlight provides light for about 30 minutes without batteries or external power, and could enable off-grid lighting and powering of small devices in developing areas without electricity access.

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Praneshvar Praneshvar
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87 views

Battery Less Flashlights: Peltier Effect

Ann Makosinski developed a battery-less flashlight that harnesses thermoelectric and Peltier effects to generate electricity from body heat differences as small as 5 degrees Celsius. She stacked ceramic Peltier tiles inside a hollow PVC tube to create small amounts of electricity from temperature differences, and used transformers to increase the voltage enough to power LEDs. The flashlight provides light for about 30 minutes without batteries or external power, and could enable off-grid lighting and powering of small devices in developing areas without electricity access.

Uploaded by

Praneshvar Praneshvar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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BATTERY LESS

FLASHLIGHTS

Can a flashlight glow without any battery or


even without any solar charging? This question was
answered by a 16-year old scientist Ann Makosinski,
who developed battery-less flashlights which uses the
most basic form of energy, heat. By the word heat, she
refers to the body temperature of humans. She
harnessed thermoelectric effect and Peltier effect.

Peltier Effect:
 The Peltier effect is the presence of heating or cooling at an electrified
junction of two different conductors.
 When the current is made to flow through two conductors, heat maybe
generated at the junction

Model:
She made it by using aluminium tubing, PVC pipe, foam insulation, and
Peltier tiles. Peltier tiles (which are basically ceramic tiles) conduct electricity
when heated on one side and cooled on the other. This is achieved due to the
flow of electrons between the temperature differences. She stacked one ceramic
tile over the other in a PVC tube, while leaving a hollow opening in the middle.
This was because; the constant flow of air current would keep the tiles cool in
the middle. She placed conductive circuits in between the tiles to create the
amount of electricity she needed to power the LEDs.

Working:
The flashlight doesn’t need to be turned on or off. All we have to do is just
take the flashlight in our hands. The tiles
produce current even if the temperature
difference between the ends is about 5
degrees. This causes the temperature
difference in the tiles and results in the
production of voltage. Ann noted that the voltage produced was a little weak to
power an LED bulb. So she used transformers to step up the voltage that is
required to light up the LEDs.
When she visited Philippines, Ann found that many students couldn't
study at home because they didn't have electricity for lighting. This inspired her
to think of how she could convert body heat directly into electricity to power a
flashlight.
This device, without any batteries of moving parts, won Ann a
scholarship at ‘Google International Science Fair’ for the age category of 13-14
in 2013. She stated that the total cost of her prototype was around $26, which is
pretty higher. But she says that she’s trying to reduce the cost just to
commercialize this device, which would be very useful for the poor. Her
prototype proved to provide light for about 30 minutes under normal conditions.
Under ambient temperatures, it has been proved much more efficient.

Advantages:
“We use enormous amount of batteries, most of them are not
rechargeable and end up in landfills”, says Albin Gasiewski, a member of the
IEEE Committee on Earth Observations (ICEO). But, this flashlight totally
neglects the usage of batteries which is more economic and environment-
friendly. This flashlight works better when the difference between the ambient
temperature and body temperature is higher. This provides about 5.4 mW power
with a lower voltage. But the main idea is that, harvesting this kind of energy
can pave the way for many future devices like pacemakers and hearing aids to
use this energy and can be harnessed to even charge our mobile devices and
medical devices.

SAAI VARSHAN
B.E,EEE 2nd Year

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