Umm, obvious flaw
They're creating a "solar powered" uniform in the *UK*?
/me falls off chair laughing..
The cash-strapped UK Ministry of Defence is to ally with national boffinry authorities to create a camouflage uniform for soldiers which will generate electricity, so perhaps removing the crippling load of batteries currently carried by troops in combat. EPSRC press pic captioned 'Soldier looking towards you, in a fictitious …
Deep fried hoomin bars.
You're right about the equipment; the MoD refused to supply cold weather gear to Lawrence of Arabia fame, when he told them of the snow. To them the desert was a warm sunny place, forget the minus temperatures at night and snow. Never happens. And the standard issue Ruperts weren't so bloody clever either. Literally.
...if it is working on the temperature gradient between the inside of the battle dress and outside, won't that have the effect of chilling the soldier? Their heat energy has to go somewhere.
Why not just go down to the local camp store and buy them out of the solar/wind-up chargers, solar back-packs etc?
This seems like a lot of money for stuff that (basically) already exists.
The thermoelectric generation at night, if the system can be configured correctly such that it operates solely on the energy that would normally be emitted, in theory you could reduce the thermal signature of your soldiers.
i.e. thermal stealth for soldiers.
They have systems that do this already, but integrating into standard uniforms and getting power at the same time could be a winner.
Power pack = battery? (I'm not an electrical angineer so...?)
What I was hinting at was that they are trying to stop the need for soldiers to carry around heavy batteries. How will this help. The power harvested STILL needs to be stored somewhere until it's needed... ie batteries.
Now carrying fewer batteries because they can always be 'topped-up' is quite a good idea. And if this new clothing will do that cheaper/lighter/more efficiently than current technology then great.
I'm guessing not though.
Like most military kit they are heavier lumps and usually rectangular. Completely incompatible with civilian hardware. I've seen prices for rechargeabless in the £100s range.
Personally I think they'd have done better with going the power MEMS route and building a battery form factor generator, preferably with *multiple* plugs. a package the size of a lunch box which could generate <= 100W for 24 hours (top up with more JP8 as needed) could go a *long* way.
Making a combined PV/thermoelectric/Cammo fabric that meets *all* the other specs for military protective "systems" will *not* be simple.
I can see use for it while camping. Camp fires will recharge my GPS and cell phone (for emergencies, right?) at night. Just must be sure to sleep by the fire. Camping with a blanket of stars is so nice.
I don't see much use for this thing in, you know, winter.
Coat, dry food, flashlight, GPS, canteen, check. Oh, don't forget the lighter for the camp fire.
FAIL.
<quote> At night it will switch to an alternative thermo-electric method which will draw power from "difference in temperature between the outside and the inside of a soldier’s battle dress" – essentially running on the wearer's body heat. </quote>
Thermal generators of the type described above work by "moving the heat" (yeah, I'm dumbing it down) between the high-heat area and the low-heat area - the reverse of how a fridge/air-con works, where they *use* energy to *force* the movement of heat.
So, not only will this thermal generator make the poor wearer *colder* at night (as someone already pointed out) but by definition they will generate a more visible heat-bloom on any thermal-sensitive scanners (which will be used as part of night-vision in any decent night-time operation).
Double-fail!
The amount of heat drawn off will be proportional to the power draw, so if you can regulate the power draw to be equivalent to the users regular heat emission (above clothes!) the user loses no more heat than usual.
The thermoelectric effect works on the temperature differential, yes heat is drawn across, but if say 60% of that heat energy is converted into electricity, you are reducing the thermal signature, by 60% not increasing it.