Climate change threatens the working conditions, in particular in countries like India, but also in Dutch summers. Work output is negatively related to heat strain and extreme conditions may lead to heat stroke. The sun is generally abundantly present during the hottest moments of the day. This ASI Innovation Programme supported project, Sun4Cooling, combined solar panels with a coolbox with and without intermediate battery buffering. The coolbox contains phase change materials that can be inserted in a simple cotton cooling vest for external cooling and used to cool water bottles for internal cooling. The project is a cooperation between companies involved in 1) solar panels, 2) phase change materials, and 3) garment pattern making as well as the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
As part of the project, a master student of Science and Business Innovations investigated the system's cooling efficiency, costs, and feasibility. Initial results show that water bottles and phase change materials can be cooled slowly even in hot environments.
Click here to view the project poster (presented at the ASI Innovation Meetup)