If you work from home and spend a lot of time typing on the keyboard and have cold hands, you may find that keeping your fingers dry during the winter can be a costly affair. Danish startup Varme has developed a power-hungry desktop hand his warmer to combat such problems.
The Varme hand heater is the brainchild of engineer Søren Abildgaard and economist Michael Hyldgaard and has been in development for over ten years. Along the way, he was aided by input from Hui Zhang, his Ph.D researcher at UC Berkeley, and Anne Qvist, an architect and designer.
“It all started in 2012,” says Abildgaard. “My brother worked as a church servant at the Viborg Cathedral and told me about their enormous heating costs. I had to warm it up to be able to.
“I came up with infrared LEDs and the possibility of concentrating heat radiation with low energy consumption. Together with the organist, I now had a very precise target: cold hands It’s not just him, that’s why I started exploring the possibilities more closely.”
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The idea is that the user connects the device to mains power via a 60 W adapter. This lights up eight low-power IR LEDs and “the temperature in front of it rises rapidly by 10°C. With the hands in the working area, they receive a soft, pleasant warmth.”
The current fixed V-wing heater is 189 mm (7.4 inches) high, 265 mm (10.4 inches) wide and weighs 0.75 kg (1.65 lbs). It features a heat-dissipating cast-aluminum frame surrounded by an insulating cover to protect the user when handling powered-on devices.
Similarly, the power output of each IR LED is kept low enough that it heats up but doesn’t burn. “In an age when electricity is expensive, it’s great to know that your electricity consumption is minimal and your hand heater is not in danger of igniting papers or other items on your desk,” the press release said. Power consumption is measured at 42 watts.
“The infrared heat is transmitted from eight LEDs distributed across the width of the hand heater, so it’s not dangerously strong,” says startup co-founder Søren Abildgaard. It directs heat as a sort of parallel beam, but each is not powerful enough to do any harm.”
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The team has type-tested to meet European standards, but has not yet gone through the compliance process for sale to the American market, with a small amount of initial production in stock and ready to ship. I am reporting that there is
The Varme hand heater is currently fundraising on Indiegogo. Offers start at €160 (or USD 170). The usual crowdfunding caveats apply, but if all goes according to plan with the already-funded campaign, shipments are expected to begin in April.
Source: Heat
