What is a backback? ;)

Posted at 1:26 am on Sep 28th, 2008 by Erant

thats a great way to get cold kidneys and run a big medical bill …
a lot better way to cool yourself is to build sealed vacuum chamber for your hand
http://www.fitdoo.com/blog/?p=117

US army (DARPA) is experimenting with implants that directly cool down your blood.

Posted at 1:46 am on Sep 28th, 2008 by rasz

Peltiers consume A LOT of current,i think the battery life is a little short event with heavy ones!

Posted at 2:52 am on Sep 28th, 2008 by plokko

For the amount of effort required to carry that around, you’d probably get even hotter than if you weren’t wearing it.

Shrink the batteries and put the peltiers into a jacket instead.

Posted at 4:41 am on Sep 28th, 2008 by pikuorguk

rasz,
I stick my head in the sink and cool my head and forearm with cold water after each 20 minutes of intensive workout; it really lowered my core temp and get myself ready for the next round of 20 minutes. I don’t think I need that vacuum contraption if I have a sink and cold tap water nearby.

Posted at 6:14 am on Sep 28th, 2008 by liutim

Make magazine had a Peltier / Seebeck (sp?) that generated 5 volts from a candle. Back packers should have a heat pipe to draw heat from a campfire to the junction and generate 5 volts to charge usb port chargeable items (flashlights, cell phones, OMG ipods) The heat pipe is needed so you dont put your device in the fire (one side has to be cold). It could be a piece of copper, or a sealed copper tube with antifreeze and water, that boils the water in the fire and condenses it on the junction, where it runs back toward the fire.

Posted at 7:40 am on Sep 28th, 2008 by flatboat

I think that running cool water over heavy blood flow points is just as effective, a lot cheaper, and a lot less to carry. If you want something like this on the go, Sharper Image has had those ‘neck cooler’ things for as long as I can remember that work well. Or you can run cool water over your wrists or neck.

Posted at 8:49 am on Sep 28th, 2008 by M4CGYV3R

ok guys, im a huge fan of projects like this, but seriously.. if you are spotted wearing on of these, your looking at wearing a orange jumpsuit for the rest of your lives..

Posted at 1:22 pm on Sep 28th, 2008 by ash20

It’d be more efficient as a heating device, because with a peltier, yu get the heat that it pumps through and the heat from the electricity you put in.

Posted at 8:55 pm on Sep 28th, 2008 by gm

Darn if only someone could invent a simple evaporative cooling system that is automatic and gains in efficiency more as you use it.

Hmm, I will call it skin, looks like I was equipped from the factory with a cutting edge version :P

Posted at 12:25 am on Sep 29th, 2008 by nubie

On the plus side, I wouldn’t mind wearing the cooling unit from a space suit, or in fact the whole space suit :), I would really like the auto-dim feature as I face the sun :D

Posted at 12:27 am on Sep 29th, 2008 by nubie

Cooling my back doesn’t seem that enticing. However, rigging one of these into a camel-back would be a great way to take cold bee… um… soda with you everywhere.

Seriously though, my buddy competes in 40+ mile desert races every other weekend and his camel back is a life saver. Hooking some peltiers up to the stator on the bike (with a quick release mechanism for falls) would be a great way to stay in cool water for the hour or so he’s on the bike. Its just a matter of sinking the hot side in a way that won’t hurt if you eat crap on your back.

Posted at 1:00 am on Sep 29th, 2008 by Dan Fekete

Does anyone think that a 300btu cooler will be sufficient for anything? 1btu/hr is 0.293w so this think removes about 311 btus every hour. A regular wall unit removes 5000btu. “human at rest will add 450 Btu/hr of heat to the room”(http://www.ductlesshvacsupply.com/btu-sizing.html)

Posted at 11:42 am on Sep 30th, 2008 by Matt

This could be good for military or mountaineer training where you need fifty pounds of weight anyway; so, instead of a weighted vest, why not a cooling unit?

But I think a muffin fan with a 9v would be overall rather more effective anywhere that the humidity is not too bad.

Or chemical cooling. With two big motorcycle batteries it’s essentially chemical cooling anyway.

Posted at 12:24 pm on Sep 30th, 2008 by Insipid Melon

I just experienced a Peltier device for the first time (by touching) – it is simply incredible!!!! It gets incredibly cold in less than 5 seconds. What an incredible invention!

Posted at 4:47 am on Oct 26th, 2008 by Todd S.

For the amount of effort required to carry that around, you’d probably get even hotter than if you weren’t wearing it.

Posted at 12:58 am on Mar 17th, 2009 by Laptop Backpacks