{"id":246,"date":"2010-12-20T09:27:57","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T07:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/?p=246"},"modified":"2011-01-06T17:01:01","modified_gmt":"2011-01-06T15:01:01","slug":"solar-powered-clothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/2010\/12\/20\/solar-powered-clothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Powered Clothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Solar power is already becoming a mainstream source of energy all over the western hemisphere. At this point however it is used almost exclusively by large corporations which can afford to set up hundreds of cubic meters of solar panels. Most people are still in doubt about whether switching to solar panels for their houses is worth it or not, since it costs quite a lot.<\/p>\n

What about smaller scale uses of solar panels? One smaller scale use of solar panels has already been designed – in clothing.<\/p>\n

The idea is that clothes would be specially outfitted with solar panels, and electronic devices could be charged by just plugging them in to the solar panel’s battery (which is in one of the pockets of the clothing) and walking around in the sun for a while. This would save money by making people use electricity less at home, as well as maybe eventually making batteries obsolete.<\/p>\n

Silvr Lining has developed a range of clothing items that feature pockets to house solar panels to charge up mobile electronic devices, the theme in their new GO Collection.<\/p>\n

The GO Collection includes a hip-length, Bush-style Director\u2019s Jacket, hooded Utility Vest, 3\/4 length Myer\u2019s Topper overcoat and Urban Cargo Pant, letting you have solar powered energy in every possible garment you wear.<\/p>\n

All garments are made from Ultrasuede, a 100 percent polyester fabric that feels like natural suede but is resistant to stains and discoloration, is easy to wash and dry, and is animal-friendly. The clothes (as of now) come in two colors; olive green, or stone gray.<\/p>\n

All articles of clothing in the range feature specially designed pockets to house the independently functioning solar power supply panels, which measure 6 x 8 inches (15 x 20 cm) and output power that is tailored for automatic charging of mobile electronic devices. The chargers can of course be removed from the clothing, and support USB 2.0.<\/p>\n

All the pieces of the GO Collection include two solar panels, while additional units can be purchased separately for the Director\u2019s Jacket, which can accommodate up to four panels.<\/p>\n

Even so – the solar panel jacket isn’t cheap compared to most clothing. The price ranges from US$920 for the Urban Cargo Pant up to $1,260 for the Myer\u2019s Topper. Additional solar panels cost $175 each.<\/p>\n

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Of course the GO collection isn’t the only solar powered clothing collection in the market, it reveals the concept of hoe they work however.<\/div>\n
In terms of strength, most clothing solar panels will convert about 5 percent of the light that hits them into electricity, whereas typically solar panels with silicon cells are 16 percent to 20 percent efficient. The actual amount of energy created differs between item.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The clothes can also be heated up by the solar panels, so people can be warm during the winters.<\/div>\n
Developers believe that the clothing will become mainstream in the next 20 years when solar panels have become cheaper themselves.<\/div>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/science\/nature\/2000633.stm<\/p>\n

http:\/\/news.cnet.com\/8301-11128_3-9891134-54.html<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.cleantechies.com\/2008\/10\/23\/solar-powered-clothing\/<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.gizmag.com\/go-collection-of-solar-charging-clothing\/17323\/picture\/126538\/<\/p>\n

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Solar power is already becoming a mainstream source of energy all over the western hemisphere. At this point however it is used almost exclusively by large corporations which can afford to set up hundreds of cubic meters of solar panels. Most people are still in doubt about whether switching to solar panels for their houses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,5,13,11,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apperal","category-design","category-green-design","category-innovation","category-product-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ruthtrumpold.id.au\/blogs\/designtech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}