Harvesting Electrical Power from Body Heat Using Low Voltage Step-up Converters with Thermoelectric Generators

Abstract

Rise in use of mobile and wearable electronic devices increase the demand of solutions to power these devices conveniently and safely for humans and environment. Harvesting of human body energy is one of perspective solutions for this problem. This paper studies performance of harvesting of human body waste heat using thermoelectrical generators. Generated form of electricity is not suitable for direct use by electronic devices and special converters have to be used to transform and store electrical energy. Study analyzes three commercially available low voltage step-up converters in conjunction with series of 5 thermoelectric elements located on lower leg. An approach for defining efficiency of energy harvesting is presented for comparison of step-up converters and finding the best solution in required conditions.