Teen invents flashlight that runs on body heat

Published July 2, 2013 3:45pm

Who needs batteries when you can use the heat of your hand to power this flashlight?

The flashlight has earned its inventor, a 15-year-old girl from Victoria in British Columbia, a slot as one of the finalists in Google's Science Fair, ExtremeTech reported.

Ann Makosinski built the flashlight for $26, but believes the flashlights could be cheaper if mass produced.

Makosinski, as a finalist in the Google Science Fair which will hand out its awards in September, stands to earn a grand prize of $50,000 and a trip to the Galapagos Islands.

The secret behind the flashlight lies in Peltier tiles, which produce electricity when one side of the tile is heated while the other side is cooled.

Her flashlight uses an aluminum tube slipped inside a PVC pipe, which has a cutaway that allows a person’s hand to come into contact with the built-in Peltier tiles.

"Due to the temperature reliance of Peltier tiles, the flashlights worked better in colder temperatures (tested at 41 degrees Fahrenheit). The flashlight still worked in warmer temperatures (50 degrees, for instance), but the colder the surrounding temperature, the more the hand’s body heat can help the Peltier generate electricity," Extremetech said.

It added the flashlight maintained a sufficient level of light for over 20 minutes, "definitely enough time to find the candles in the dark when the power goes out."

Excited

A separate report on CBC.ca said Makosinski is excited about presenting her flashlight to the Google Science Fair judges, many of whom are scientists.

"I'm really interested in harvesting surplus energy, energy that surrounds but we never really use," she said.

Makosinski has been submitting projects to science fairs since Grade 6, and has been particularly interested in alternative energy. — TJD, GMA News

Tags: inventor, thermoelectriceffect, alternativeenergy, flashlight, filipina