If you’re headed on a trip soon, don’t forget to pack your phone charger (in your carry-on, not your checked luggage), but what if you are heading into the woods or on a long backcountry trek?
With cell phones and smart phones reaching nearly universal rates, the problem of keeping all these devices charged has reached record proportions. Some airports have set up phone charging stations (now with locking devices in some locations) to help travelers keep their devices charged, but once a traveler gets away from civilization, things get harder.
In fact, the near ubiquity of mobile devices keeps operators at ranger stations in places like New Hampshire’s White Mountains and Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park just as busy answering calls for directions, weather reports, and blister treatment as they are for true emergencies.
Keeping your cell phone charged in places like these have always nvolved expensive and often ineffective gear, but a new device introduced by TES NewEnergy Co. directly converts heat into electrical energy. In brief, while you are cooking your dinner on the trail, you can also charge your phone. Called the Pan Charger, this stew-pot lets you recharge USB-enabled devices while you cook using a built-in thermoelectric heat exchanger to send a trickle of juice through the USB cable in its handle.
