Scientists Have Developed "Air-Conditioned" Smart Clothes.

Imagine that a garment can keep your body at a comfortable temperature, whether it is actually cold or hot.

This is the goal of an engineering project at University of California at San Diego, which has received $2 million 600 thousand from the US Department of energy's advanced research projects agency.

Wearing this smart clothing can reduce the heating and air conditioning costs of buildings and houses.

The name of this project is ATTACH (self cooling and heating adaptive Textile Technology), under the leadership of Joseph, a distinguished professor of nanomaterials engineering at University of California at San Diego.

By adjusting the temperature of a nearby person rather than the whole house, smart clothing can at least reduce the energy consumption of buildings and households by 15%, Wang pointed out.

"When only one or two people are in a big house, heating or cooling the whole room is not cost-effective," Wang said.

"If you can carry out partial heating or cooling, it's like you are in the car, heating the car seat instead of raising the temperature inside the car, you can save a lot of energy."

Smart clothing is designed to adjust the temperature of the wearer by adjusting the temperature of the room, keeping the temperature at 93 degrees F.

When the room temperature gets cold, the clothes will become thicker.

As the room temperature rises, the clothing becomes thinner.

To accomplish this remarkable achievement, researchers will insert cold, heat shrinkable polymers into smart clothing.

"No matter how high or low the ambient temperature is, users do not need to adjust the thermostat. They always feel like a breeze," Wang said.

"93 degrees F is comfortable skin temperature for most people," Renkun Chen added. He is an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at University of California at San Diego and a partner in the project.

Chen's contribution to this project is the development of what is called thermoelectricity.

The auxiliary device for cooling and heating can be printed, and can be implanted into specific positions of smart clothing.

Thermoelectric materials can regulate the temperature of "hot spots", such as the back and feet. When a person is more active, the temperature of these parts is higher than that of other parts of the body.

"It's like a personalized air-conditioner or heater," Chen said.

"With the advent of smart clothing, you don't need to make your room as hot as summer in winter, and keep your room temperature as cool as winter in summer.

Smart clothing means reducing energy consumption.

And no matter how big the difference is, you will still feel comfortable, "Chen said.

Researchers also

Intelligent clothing with independent energy supply.

The clothing includes rechargeable batteries that can provide thermoelectric materials, and biofuel cells that can get electricity from human sweat.

In addition, all accessories, batteries, thermoelectric materials and biologic batteries, can be printed using the printable wearable device technology developed in Wang laboratory.

These accessories are also very thin, with flexibility and flexibility to ensure that smart clothing is not bulky.

"Our goal is to create smart clothing that looks and feels like everyday clothes.

It can be washed, retractable, bent, and light.

We also want to make smart clothing attractive and fashionable, "Wang said.

In terms of price, the research team is not yet certain.

The cost.

It depends on the scale of production, but the printing technology in the Wang lab can produce spare parts locally.

Reducing costs is a major goal, researchers say.