Experimental Study on the Effects of Tightening on the Performance of Thermoelectric Generator for Human Body Heat Harvesting

Thermoelectric generator (TEG) has been researched for quite some time in harvesting human body heat to generate electricity as human body generates heat naturally and continuously through metabolism process. In this study, the effect of thermal contact between thermoelectric generator and the heat source from human body is studied through the tightening of TEG attachment onto the skin. Several sets of experiments are conducted on three different body part locations, namely forehead, forearm, and wrist of different individuals of different genders by considering parameters such as surrounding temperature, skin temperature, output voltage and current. The values of power generated from the TEG are calculated and analysed.Results show that the tightening of the TEG attachment to the skin surface increases the thermal contact and shows the most significant increment in power generated on more flexible skin location especially at the upper arm of female with 280% increase in power output. However, forehead remains as the highest power generator with a power output of 3414 µW after tightening.