Fashion: Protection: Environmental
Gas cooled desert overall   (+3, -4)  [vote for, against]
Not precisely a stillsuit from Dune, but...

A sturdy oversize jacket containing small solid bags of gas used in A/C sprawled all arround the interior, between the fabrics of the jacket.

The function of the compressor can be made with the body movement and breathing, forcing the gas to circulate, compress, decompress and cool down.

This jacket will need a small radiators that can be placed on parts non like to touch objects. (underneat the armpits, the shoulders) no fans needed, like a fridge.

the more you move, the cooler it gets. The design should be solid state, the only thing that moves should be the valves that keep the gas flowing just one way.
-- noyola, May 16 2009

I have doubts about the ability of -walking- to compress the gas enough to provide cooling.
-- DIYMatt, May 17 2009


Energy to compress the gases is coming from your muscles. Your muscles will have to work harder; this generates heat. I'm almost certain the work required will be equal to or greater than the heat energy extracted from the body. Throw in some unavoidable thermodynamic inefficiency and this suit makes you hotter, not cooler.
-- BunsenHoneydew, May 17 2009


BunsenHoneydew, you are right... but how about this: there might be a way to use the momentum generated by the swinging of arms and feet at the time of walking, what it shoud be done is calculate the amount of force needed to compress the gas to slightly overcome the heat generated by the body. Might be possible to use the inercial force to contrarrest the inefficency?
-- noyola, May 18 2009


as long as the energy you input to your suit comes from any movement the wearer makes, the energy will ultimately have come from muscle activity of the user.
-- loonquawl, May 18 2009


Yes, but if the energy for the suit comes from human energy which is normally waste energy, then the suit won't increase the amount of work the wearer needs to do.

For example, considering that when you're walking, you lift your foot off the ground, then use your muscles to accellerate your leg to speed it in the forwards direction, then use your muscles more, in order to accellerate your leg to slow it down, before putting your foot back on the ground.

The latter accelleration, slowing the leg down, expends muscle energy, since humans don't have built-in regenerative braking.

A machine attached to the leg could slow the leg during that phase of leg movement, reducing the work the wearer does, while generating useable mechanical or electrical energy. This, I believe, is what noyola is suggesting.
-- goldbb, May 18 2009


It would still make you hotter because if it worked like that the only way to cool down would be if you were in motion. So, you would be tempted to move more, and thus get hotter. Since 100% efficiency is impossible the heating would exceed the cooling.

As I [may have?] mentioned earlier, a more perfect solution is to wear shorts.
-- DIYMatt, May 20 2009


What if the gas was compressed by the heel? Compressing the gas would act as a shock absorber and the energy used would be energy used regardless.

[goldbb], you are incorrect. Walking is a pendulum motion, which if you own a clock of such design, you would plainly see uses very little energy.

And the //human energy which is normally waste energy// bit is pure nonsense.

I dare you to find a machine, which performs the many complicated tasks a human performs, that works on a few pounds of carbohydrates per day.
-- MikeD, May 20 2009


i guess [goldbb] tried to say: 'the part of human energy production that is going to waste' not ' human energy, which is mostly waste'
-- loonquawl, May 20 2009


Oh yes. I see [loonquawl]. My apologies, [goldbb]. I was unusually combative last night.
-- MikeD, May 20 2009


The heel compression idea just about makes this worthwhile. That there is an energy source that you positively want to waste, or at least dampen, to reduce shock to the entire skeletal system. I believe military boffins are already using it as a source of electrical power.

IMHO using any of the other suggested energy sources would make the user feel like they were trying to walk through custard.
-- BunsenHoneydew, May 28 2009



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