A Personal Cooling Garment with Flexible Thermoelectric Devices and Heat Sinks

Global warming is causing more intense, more frequent, and longer periods of extreme heat events, which have caused numerous diseases and, in some cases, fatalities, among patients, the elderly, and outdoor workers such as those in the agriculture and construction sectors and firefighters. A lightweight personal cooling garment could be a game-changing solution to protect at-risk population and workers. However, today’s personal cooling garments are not adequate as they are often too bulky and heavy, have limited cooling duration, and have no or limited temperature controllability. Hence, there is a strong need for a personal cooling garment with effective cooling, adjustable temperature, lightweight, is flexible & wearable, consumes less power (high coefficient of performance), and has low cost. Here we present our work on a personal cooling garment with flexible thermoelectric devices and heat sinks. This work leverages our earlier concept of developing flexible thermoelectric devices using high-performance rigid thermoelectric pillars. Here, we integrated individual thermoelectric devices into a flexible garment with the hot side cooled by flexible heat sinks. The garment is optimized with a finite element model for minimal weight. The performance of the garment under various heat flux levels and environmental temperatures was characterized. The results show that the garment can deliver high-flux cooling in a hot environment with high coefficient of performance (COP > 1). The technoeconomics and potential applications of this garment are also discussed.