The Thermal Energy project group’s mission is to convert heat into electricity. The heart of this concept is having a temperature difference and using thermoelectric generators. Engineers have previously developed travel mugs that can charge a phone and built flashlights that are powered from the heat of a hand.

The Thermal Energy Project is moving forward to build the body-powered flash light, but find different parameters to improve it. Generally, a larger temperature difference will give us a greater voltage from the peltiers (thermoelectric coolers). So if our flashlight can be filled with different fluids (freon, water, coolant, etc.), we can get a cooler temperature than ambient air, leading to a greater temperature difference.

Moreover, different materials of the flashlight will be modified and tested, seeing which material will give us a greater temperature difference (steel, aluminum, plastic, etc.)

We currently have $600 in the budget. A brief timeline of our goals is:

Final Design – Week 4, Saturday 10pm
Fabrication of 3 Prototypes – Week 5, Friday 10pm
Testing and Analysis Plan – Week 5, Sunday 10pm
Testing and Analysis, Modification – Week 6 Friday 10pm
Fabrication of Final Flashlight – Week 7 Wednesday 10pm
Final Testing and Analysis – Week 8 Wednesday 10pm

All team members submitted a design and a combination of them was used for a finalized design. The flash light will be built from a PVC pipe cut in half, along with a different material on top to hold the peltiers. Aluminum, steel, and polystyrene will be tested.

-Henry Mak