Welectric!

Thermoelectric wellies that charge your mobile phone using heat from your feet

Orange today unveils the Orange Power Wellies, a groundbreaking and innovative eco mobile phone charging prototype created to keep Glastonbury Festival goers connected with their friends across the weekend.

The Orange Power Wellies, created in collaboration with renewable energy experts GotWind, use a unique ‘power generating sole’ that converts heat from your feet into an electrical current. This ‘welectricity’ can then be used to recharge your mobile phone. Orange, Official Communications Partner for the Glastonbury Festival, will be showcasing the Orange Power Wellies prototype onsite.

Twelve hours of stomping through the Glastonbury Festival in your Orange Power Wellies will give you enough power to charge a mobile phone for one hour. To increase the length of time you can charge your phone for, simply hot step it to the dance tent because the hotter your feet get, the more energy you produce.

How it works
After a full days festival frolics you can plug your phone into the power output at the top of the welly and use the energy that has been generated throughout the day to charge your phone. The power collected in the ‘power generating sole’ is collected via a process known as the ‘Seebeck’ effect. Inside the power generating sole there are thermoelectric modules constructed of pairs of p-type and n-type semiconductor materials forming a thermocouple. These thermocouples are connected electrically forming an array of multiple thermocouples (thermopile). They are then sandwiched between two thin ceramic wafers. When the heat from the foot is applied on the top side of the ceramic wafer and cold is applied on the opposite side, from the cold of the ground, electricity is generated.

Dave Pain, Managing Director at GotWind said: “GotWind are excited to be working with Orange for a fourth year to create an invaluable charging prototype for festival goers. Wellies are now the staple festival footwear, the Orange Power Wellies not only keep you dry but they also provide a crucial eco electricity source.”

Andrew Pearcey, Head of Sponsorship at Orange UK said: “Orange remain loyal to the green ethos of the Glastonbury Festival and are committed to researching exciting new energy sources that can be used on site to ensure people can stay in touch with their nearest and dearest. The Orange Power Wellies use clean and renewable energy to create valuable electricity ensuring festival goers can text and phone their mates for the duration of the weekend”.

The Orange Power Wellies are the latest innovation in Orange’s bid to find alternative sustainable and eco friendly mobile phone charging technologies that can be used at the Glastonbury Festival. Previous projects have included the Recharge Pod powered by wind and solar energy, Dance Charger which drew upon kinetic energy created by dancing and the Orange Power Pump which uses the energy created from a traditional foot pump and converted it into electricity.

The Orange Chill n Charge area will be onsite for the duration of the festival with more charging points than ever, exciting new interactive elements and will also feature a soundtrack of stripped back acoustic performances. for all the latest updates from the field go to Orange’s Glasto Blog at www.orange.co.uk/glastonbury which will be launching in mid-June.

For more information about Glastonbury Festival go to www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

-Ends-

For more information on Orange or Glastonbury please contact:

Holly Ferguson / Minnie Copping at M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment
Tel: 0207 544 3855 / 0207 544 4581
Mob: 07837 252565 / 07896 857 800
Email: holly.ferguson@mcsaatchi.com / Minnie.copping@mcsaatchi.com

 

Orange is the key brand of the France Telecom Group, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. With 131.8 million customers, the Orange brand now covers Internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates.

In the UK, Orange provides high quality GSM coverage to 99% of the UK population, and 3G coverage to more than 93%. At the end of March 2010, Orange had more than 17.305 million customers in the UK – 16.442 million active mobile customers and approximately 863,000 fixed line internet customers.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trade marks of Orange Brand Services Limited.
 
On July 1, the company will become part of Everything Everywhere, one company that runs two of Britain’s most famous brands  -  Orange and T-Mobile - with plans to  transform the industry bygiving customers instant access to everything, everywhere, offering them the best value, best choice and best network coverage in the country.

For more information please call the Orange Press Office 0870 3731500, or visit

www.orange.co.uk/newsroom

About GotWind

GotWind was originally founded with the purpose of sharing experience in the design and making of small scale renewable energy projects, focusing in particularly on wind and solar power.

In 2006 Ben Jandrell launched this website initially as a hobby to share his passion with the world, as renewable energy has become more and more prevalent in the worlds conscious. GotWind and its unique approach has received massive interest worldwide. The website is a quickly growing hub for renewable energy enthusiast’s worldwide, offering advice and resources for all its users.
For further information please visit www.gotwind.org
 

via newsroom.orange.co.uk

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