The music festival season is coming, and past experience says it will rain, and it will be muddy. So suitable footwear will be needed. Aside from suitable clothing, another requirement will be your mobile phone, so you can keep in touch with friends via text and social networks, tweeting and updating, and taking pictures for your online photo album. The problem comes in when you suddenly realise you have one bar of battery left, and in the middle of a field far away from any power point.
But fear not, because Orange have seen a way to make sure you can wear appropriate footwear and keep your phone charged up, with the Orange Power Wellies (seriously). Developed in conjunction with renewable energy experts GotWind, the wellies have a unique power generating sole, that will convert heat from your feet into an electrical current. Orange are Official Communications Partner for the Glastonbury festival, and they will be showcasing the prototype for these wellies on site.
It is estimated that twelve hours of walking around the Glastonbury Festival in the Power Wellies will generate enough power to give your mobile a charge for one hour. If that is not enough, then a bit of dancing should help, as the hotter your feet get, the more energy they will generate. All you need to do to get the power from the wellies to your phone is plug it into the power output adaptor at the top of the footwear.
Whilst the whole 'Power Welly' thing may seem a little silly, there is a serious point behind it all, using an eco friendly way of charging up electrical equipment. The way the whole thing works is by utilising a process known as the 'Seebeck' effect. Hidden away inside the sole of the footwear are thermoelectric modules, constructed with semiconductor materials to form a thermocouple. These are connected together to form a thermopile, which is then sandwiched between two thin ceramic wafers. When heat from the foot is applied to the top of the ceramic cover, and cold to the underside, electricity is generated.
If you want to see a demo of the Orange Power Wellies at the Glastonbury Festival, Orange will be putting on a demo in their Chill n Charge area.