Hi all, I just came across Peltier coolers or heat pumps as a technology that might help EM sufferers if used in shoes. Low and behold there is a patent on them and a research project at ETH Zurich. Unfortunately I haven't found any commercial products available to buy, but it might be worth looking at for members. In principal the technology is there to cool shoes with a temperature controllable app or thermostat as desired.
Peltier coolers are described as "a heater/cooler, or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the device to the other, with consumption of electrical energy, depending on the direction of the current."
In simple terms they create cooling on one side and extract heat on the other. They are used in camping cooling boxes, heat sinks for computer CPUs at the moment.
Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful and detailed information with us. Interesting that there is quite a bit of movement in this 'icy feet/cold wear' market. There is currently a cold feet project going on to develop cold footwear in Canada. China also has many patents and developments cold feet products. Can only be good news for us. Wish they would hurry up Yay!
Amazing, somebody is listening to my prayers, I have been wishing for so long that somebody would come up with something perhaps not exactly the same but similar. I said if only someone invented something that worked like a fridge that I could wear on my feet! I suppose it is the same principle, but not quite as cold as my fridge. I spend hours with my feet in my bowl of water at a temperature that suits me and it is the only thing that gives me any relief from this pain! At the moment they have to go inside freezer bags first, as I have 3 ulcers with dressings on so they can't get wet. Not very good for travelling around though!
I just contacted J.I.M. medical about their cold/compression wraps. J.I.M. medical only services Wisc. And Illinois. You have to contact a medical supply house in your area to purchase. If your Dr. calls your Ins. carrier and recommends you have one of these to help manage EM the Ins carrier will give him an authorization code to write a script. My Ins. carrier ( United Health Care ) will cover 85% of the cost of the product. I talked to J.I.M. and they said the leg and foot boot can be worn while sleeping. If going through your Ins. carrier the cost of the product is $500.00. If you buy it directly the cost is $250.00. I think if you want two boots you have to buy an additional boot. I don't know the cost of a boot only. This all sounds pretty good but I have to do some more investigating B4 I proceed. SOUNDS VERY POSITIVE!
Well I am in the UK so there might not be anybody here we are way behind you. However, I do have a friend who lives in Flint, Michigan so maybe he would be able to get them for me and post them. I don't have insurance as it finished when my husband reached 65 and we couldn't afford the monthly payments to carry it on, plus they wouldn't support existing conditions. So, I would be self paying, but if they bring relief it would be worth every penny to me. I might be able to start living again!
I 've been working for the past 9 months with the Engineering School at the University of Waterloo in Ontario Canada to develop a cooling sandal. The students have now developed the cooling/heat exchange mechanism imbedded in the sole (Peltier) and created the 3rd prototype which I will be testing this summer. It is a very difficult thing to develop footwear that is light, can withstand weight, pounding, flex and water as well as dirt and pollution. (It may be easier to send a payload to the space shuttle!). It will probably be another year as the remote control mechanism and safety testing needed will take some time. The students have worked very hard and are to be commended for their passion and persistence with this project.I will keep you all posted as to our progress.
This September I will be working with students of the Technical University of Delft (the Netherlands) on trying to do the same thing. Are there any tips I can share with them? xxx ellen
Dragica said:
HI folks.
I 've been working for the past 9 months with the Engineering School at the University of Waterloo in Ontario Canada to develop a cooling sandal. The students have now developed the cooling/heat exchange mechanism imbedded in the sole (Peltier) and created the 3rd prototype which I will be testing this summer. It is a very difficult thing to develop footwear that is light, can withstand weight, pounding, flex and water as well as dirt and pollution. (It may be easier to send a payload to the space shuttle!). It will probably be another year as the remote control mechanism and safety testing needed will take some time. The students have worked very hard and are to be commended for their passion and persistence with this project.I will keep you all posted as to our progress.
A second group of students in Canada is continuing to work on this project and has come up with another cooling option. They did not think it would be possible to enclose a peltier unit and a cooling fan so that they would be waterproof and debris-proof. They've just sent the report to me from their summer semester and I've not had a chance to read it because of serious computer problems. I've bought a new computer and am now back in business. We have gotten a shoe prototype organization interested in this work and they are consulting with us now. So, I anticipate this will help a great deal--engineering is wonderful but most engineers do not have the expertise to put together a viable shoe. I will get back to you as soon as I'm up to speed. PLease let us know how things are going with your group.
Thanks for the information. It must help having another group of students working on the project. What a great difference it would make to us all here! We have had quite a few new members recently.
The project with the students of the Technical University of Delft was a bit depayed, but since yesterday we have started. They can really use some advice in what direction they should be looking at (they only have 6 weeks to do this). So I was wondering if you have any tips/ideas of that report you got? Also, things that don't work will help them. Would you mind if I could get a copy of the report? I would only share it with the students and myself, I promise that. It is just to get them started a little faster.
xxx ellen . p.s. these students will be making a glove for EM, not a shoe. But same principles I guess.
Dragica said:
Hi Ellen and other EM folks
A second group of students in Canada is continuing to work on this project and has come up with another cooling option. They did not think it would be possible to enclose a peltier unit and a cooling fan so that they would be waterproof and debris-proof. They've just sent the report to me from their summer semester and I've not had a chance to read it because of serious computer problems. I've bought a new computer and am now back in business. We have gotten a shoe prototype organization interested in this work and they are consulting with us now. So, I anticipate this will help a great deal--engineering is wonderful but most engineers do not have the expertise to put together a viable shoe. I will get back to you as soon as I'm up to speed. PLease let us know how things are going with your group.
I'm new to EM and am quite interested in the research on cooling shoes at Waterloo, Ontario. I live just 2 hours north of there and would be interested in this!
My other question is can you share what doctor you see for your EM? I am still looking for one in southern Ontario.
I saw a "cooling glove" that was being developed by Darpa for warming or cooling a soldiers body temperature. It was on a video program about Darpa. It wasn't a device you'd wear however. It basically consisted of a pump that pumped warm or cold water though a device that had a metal cylinder that your hand would grasp. The Glove, wasn't really a glove in this case but a device to transmit cold or warmth through a metal pipe you'd grasp.
Some race car drivers use cooling tubes in their clothing with coolers and cold/ice water flowing through those tubes. It's different than a peltier cooling device. There are some medical products that use cold ice water. There are some wrapping devices that will fit around the foot with these kinds of devices, but they depend on water flow. If one could have gel type soles with a way to cool the jell either using cold water exchange or some kind of peltier cooling device that might work, but the gel would have to conduct the cold efficiently. Some patients, like my mom have EM so bad they can barely stand having things on their feet and have perhaps soft open toe slippers as their main foot wear. Which limits the ability for them to have a cooling foot device to walk around in.
A peltier cooler would have to remove the heat, and if the other side of the device warmed up then the device would have to take the warmth and move it somewhere. If it moves it to the sole of the shoe you have heat building up at the bottom of your shoe, which doesn't sound very efficient. It sound like an interesting challenge for designers. Imagine wearing a mini refrigerator on your feet with the coils that get hot (which are normally on the back of a refrigerator) heating up the soles of your shoes. Doesn't sound very efficient to me.