MIT Wristband Could Make AC Obsolete

[MindMover]

Here’s a scary statistic: In 2007, 87 percent of households in the U.S. used air conditioning, compared to just 11 percent of households in Brazil and a mere 2 percent in India. Another one: By 2025, booming nations like those are projected to account for a billion new consumers worldwide, with a corresponding explosion in demand for air conditioning expected to arrive along with them. Keeping indoor spaces at comfortable temperatures requires a huge amount of electricity–especially in sweltering climates like India and Brazil–and in the U.S. alone it accounts for a full 16.5 percent of energy use.

All of that adds up to a big problem. At a point when humans need to take a sober look at our energy use, we’re poised to use a devastating amount of it keeping our homes and offices at the right temperatures in years to come. A team of students at MIT, however, is busy working on a prototype device that could eliminate much of that demand, and they’re doing it by asking one compelling question: Why not just heat and cool our bodies instead?

Shames runs hot. His mom runs cold. He figured there must be a way for them to coexist.

Wristify, as they call their device, is a thermoelectric bracelet that regulates the temperature of the person wearing it by subjecting their skin to alternating pulses of hot or cold, depending on what’s needed. The prototype recently won first place at this year’s MADMEC, an annual competition put on by the school’s Materials Science and Engineering program, netting the group a $10,000 prize, which they’ll use to continue its development. It’s a promising start to a clever approach that could help alleviate a serious energy crisis. But as Sam Shames, the MIT senior who helped invent the technology, explains, the team was motivated by a more prosaic problem: keeping everyone happy in a room where no one can agree where to set the thermostat.

http://www.wired.com/design/2013/10/an-ingenious-wristband-that-keeps-your-body-at-the-perfect-temperature-no-ac-required/#oo

[mr_hat]

1. If I wanted a cold wrist,

I'd go grab the vodka out of the freezer.

[we can do it]

2. Cool idea!

[enlightenment]

3. I think that might actually

kill me. My body doesn't regulate temperature correctly now - I can't imagine what a constant input of "shocks" (hot or cold) would do to it. I love the idea, though . . . just not sure about the application.

[Blue Owl]

4. Has Stephen Colbert's "Wriststrong" organization weighed in?

n/t

[gopiscrap]

5. interesting

[Warpy]

6. I love this idea.

Every Victorian lady confined in a whalebone corset under a woolen dress and wearing high button shoes knew to run the pump over her wrists when she was fetching cooking water.

It really does work to help you feel more comfortable. These days, I'm more likely to soak my head, it seems to cool me off even faster.

[MindMover]

7. LOL, and that probably wasn't even cool water ... nt

[kestrel91316]

8. When we get our 110F+ heat waves nothing works for me like a cold bottle of soda

laid across my neck right over one jugular or the other.

[Auntie Bush]

9. Something warm placed in the groin area (Where legs meet body) actually warms my feet.

Placing something warm in the groin (like those microwaveable Flax filled bags) warms the blood going to your feet. That works better and faster than piling blankets and socks etc on your feet.

[Warpy]

13. I bought a neck scarf some years ago

and remade it with better fabric that contains florists' crystals. They absorb water and swell up, releasing the water slowly and cooling as they do. It does a decent job if I keep turning it over every 5 minutes.

[Delmette]

15. Freeze it.

Once the water is absorbed, put it in the refrigerator or freezer. I use to keep two or three going in rotation to battle summertime hot flashes.

I love the idea of individualized warming or cooling!

[irisblue]

10. hot fflashes..? this would be a blessing nt

[freshwest]

18. +100

[Riftaxe]

11. Looks like I am in the 13%

My idea of air conditioning is opening the windows

Never had AC, one of the benefits of living in a state with a decent climate (NH).

[glinda]

14. Will they be making them for pets? Just wondering.....

[russspeakeasy]

16. Thanks for posting this.

[quakerboy]

17. Sounds like its main application would be in temperate climates

Which is to say only in comfort related applications, not in safety related ones. Its a device to keep you from feeling miserable when you visit your grandma with the heat on to 90, or when your sitting in a waiting room set to 56.

The downside is it could be dangerous when you are working over a hot frier at Mcdonalds in the middle of summer or outside in the middle of winter, as the main effect is on your perception of temperature, not your actual core temperature.

[dreamnightwind]

19. Make active thermal clothing or individualized atmosphere

I have long thought there would be a future for clothing that actively heats or cools the person, allowing us to adjust the climate of a razor-thin layer of air around a person instead of adjusting the climate of an entire room or house. Especially for cooling, since regular clothing can insulate and warm a person but it cannot cool.

The extreme example would be a climate-controlled space suit, but I was thinking something would eventually evolve that is functionally similar but unobstrusive.

Maybe not even clothing but a tiny atmosphere or air bubble that somehow is attached to an individual. Obviously it would have to have intake and exhaust for fresh air to breathe, or maybe the nose and mouth would be outside the bubble.