Thermoelectric Generator- Mobile device

charger

Evan Fedea
11th grade Researcher/Engineer
Spruce Creek High School
2-27-15

Thermoelectric Generator- Mobile Device Charger

Evan Fedea
11th grade Researcher/Engineer
Spruce Creek High School
2-25-15

Summary
The Google Science Fair is a global online science competition, open to teenage students;
ages 13 to 18. This competition first took place on 2011. In this competition, students create a
hypothesis, experiment, and present their results. Participants are required to have internet
connection and a Google account. Students are judged on eight components of their projectpresentation, question, hypothesis, research, experiment, data, observations, and conclusion.
My groups submission to the Google Science Fair is a thermoelectric charger. This
charger is dependent on heat, and can charge a small electric device, such as a phone. Our idea is
using body heat as the heat source, as healthy skin is recorded to be around 34 degrees Celsius.
Our goal is to harness that body heat and convert it into electric energy, capable of charging an
electronic device. By constructing the thermoelectric charger, we hope to create a convenient
method of charging a mobile electronic device, such as a phone.
To create our thermoelectric charger, we need multiple tools. The primary component to
this device is a thermoelectric generator- the Peltier cooler. This simple, lightweight part is what
converts heat into electricity. To carry the charge, the Peltier coolers wires must be soldered to
the wires of a cable charger of some sort; we used an iPhone cable. We also utilized a multimeter
to check if the device was able to transfer the current.

Table of Contents
Summary
Contents

ii

About Me

Question/Proposal

Prototype and Final Design

Research

2,3

Method / Testing and Redesign

Results

Conclusion

Appendix A:??

References

ii

About Me
To compete in the Google Science Fair, students were allowed to work in groups. A
group can only have a maximum count of three students. My group is composed of JJ Abando,
age 17, Bryson Herring, age 16, and myself; Evan Fedea, age 16. We are all 11th grade students in
the Academy of Information Technology and Robotics (AITR). Our academy is one of the three
available academies offered in Spruce Creek High School, Port Orange, FL.

Question/Proposal

Figure 1. A cell phone indicating low battery

When thinking on a science fair project idea, we asked ourselves- What could we make
that could be used on a daily basis, something convenient? We realized the impact technology
has in everyday life, and the most popular technology device is the cell phone. Among cell phone
users, the most commonly perceived problem is battery life. Cell phones, especially
smartphones, can consume a lot of electric power in a short amount of time, even if the phone is
using battery-conservative methods, such as low brightness. To remedy this problem, we
thought- What is the most widely available energy source? The human body has an average
temperature of 36 degrees Celsius, with the skin at about 33 degrees Celsius. Our body creates
heat, why not use that energy for something we want or need, like battery power? So our
proposed question is- Is it possible to charge a phone with body heat? I expect our device to
work, but the charge rate using body heat will be much slower than that of an electrical power
source, because I do not believe that the thermoelectric generator is capable of producing the
same amount of power as that of a wall outlet.

Prototype and Final Design

Our initial prototype was a simple model made out of classroom materials. A white,
square-shaped, cardboard cut-out was used to represent our Peltier cooler, the device that
converts heat into electricity. Connected to the cut-out are two pipe cleaners. These pipe cleaners
represent the Peltier coolers wires. On the other end of the pipe cleaner is a straw. This straw
represents a charging cable.
Our testing prototype was constructed by Bryson Herring. He used an iPhone 4 cable as
the charging cable, and purchased the Peltier cooler. The cables wires were soldered to the
Peltier coolers wires to construct our second prototype: our testing model.

Figure 2. Left: initial prototype, Right: working/testing prototype

Research
Body heat/thermoelectricity/cooler/voltage of cord
In our project, our goal was to convert body heat into electrical energy that can charge an
electric device. It is a well-known fact that the healthy average body temperature is 98 degrees
Fahrenheit, or 36 degrees Celsius. The skin is slightly cooler, at around 91 degrees Fahrenheit, or
33 degrees Celsius.

To harness this body heat, we hope to use a process known as thermoelectricity. It is the process
of transforming heat into electricity. The way this works is that a thermoelectric device, such as a
Peltier cooler has two sides- a hot side and a cool side. When the temperature difference between
the two sides is suitable (in our Peltier coolers case, the difference must be 5 degrees Celsius),
the electrons from the hot side move to the cool side. When this action occurs, an electric current
is generated. This is because when the heat is applied to one side; it is released on the other side,
the cooler side. This current is what we hope to use in charging electric devices.

Thermoelectric devices are also capable of performing the reverse- as a thermoelectric

cooler. When a power source is connected to the device, the electric energy causes the device to
release heat on one side. Since one side is releasing heat, the hot side, the other side is cool. This
cool side absorbs heat, so the thermoelectric device can act as a cooler. So to sum up, the Peltier
cooler has two sides- one side absorbs or is applied heat, the other side releases heat.

Voltage is electrical pressure, the equivalent to the water pressure from a hose. Current is
flow rate, which is similar to a water pipes size. Total electrical power is represented through
watts. Wattage is equal to voltage (pressure) multiplied by current (flow rate). An iPhone charger
has 5 volts and 1 amp, resulting in 5 watts. Fortunately, our purchased Peltier cooler meets the
same specifications- 5 volts, 1 amp, 5 watts.

Method /Testing and Redesign

Our second prototype was constructed by an actual thermoelectric component- the Peltier
cooler. To test this prototype we needed to use a heat source to create the 5 degree Celsius
difference between the hot side and cool side of the Peltier cooler. To ensure that we had a large
enough temperature difference in our test, we used boiling water and an ice pack. This prototype
was tested through the use of a multimeter, and it was confirmed to be capable of carrying the
current. When the multimeter test was completed, we tested the device if it could charge an
iPhone.

Results
Our device was constructed well and our wires were well soldered. The multimeter
indicated that a charge was being generated. However, our experiment proved unsuccessful. The
electronic device was not showing signs of charging, it was not taking the electrical power
generated from our Peltier cooler.

Conclusion
Our project failed, possibly on a number of reasons. One such possibility is that the charge
generated by the Peltier cooler was not strong enough to charge the phone. A possible reason for this is
that the temperature difference used for our Peltier cooler was not enough, maybe we need a more
extreme difference in temperature. A highly unlikely reason for our experiments failure is that the
soldering was done incorrectly. Today, we conclude that we do not have the technology that can capture
our idea. In response to our question, it is not possible to convert body heat into electrical power that can
charge a phone effectively.

References
Farzana, Abanty. "Temperature of a Healthy Human (Skin Temperature)." hypertextbook.com. Ed. Glenn Elert. N.p., 2001. Web.
24 Feb. 2015. <http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/AbantyFarzana.shtml>
"What are amps, watts, volts and ohms?." science.howstuffworks.com. N.p., 31 Oct. 2000. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
<http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/question501.htm>
"Science Concept: Volts, Watts, and Amps." helcohi.com. Culverco, LLC, 2002. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.helcohi.com/sse/body/hp.html>
Silver, Jerry. "Seebeck Effect/Peltier Effect: Semiconductor Heating." education.com. The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. Web.
19 Feb. 2015. <http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/seebeck-effectPeltier-effect-semiconductor-heating/>
Finch, Lawrence. "Everything you wanted to know about charging your iPhone or iPad." discussions.apple.com. Apple, n.d. Web.
21 Feb. 2015. <https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3511>
"Thermoelectricity." science.howstuffworks.com. N.p., 18 Aug. 2009. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.
<http://science.howstuffworks.com/thermoelectricity-info.htm>.
"HOW THE POWERPOT WORKS." powerpractical.com. Power Practical, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.powerpractical.com/how-thermoelectric-generators-work>.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_generator
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_effect