So, it’s just a fan that awkwardly attaches to your neck under your shirt?
It’s not simply a wearable fan attached to your neck. The Reon works through the Peltier effect.
See, this guy gets it
It would be interesting if someone could dig through the archives of sites like Engadget, Gizmodo, etc., and figure out what fraction of upcoming new-category gadgets actually become hits. Ten percent? Less?
First, Peltier elements are pretty inefficient. Second, I’m dubious about the design — a Peltier element moves heat from Point A to Point B, and the whole device appears to still sit beneath the shirt. I suppose that the hot side is the outer side, but what you’d ideally want is to have hot air blowing as far away from you as possible.
I’m skeptical that it’s better to carry a battery-powered Peltier element than to carry something like an evaporative cooler. That’s more-energy-efficient, and you don’t have the problem of part of the device getting hot.
EDIT: Or, if you can’t leverage phase-change from liquid water to water vapor because of high humidity, cooling vests that leverage solid to liquid phase-change.
How a Cooling Vest Invented by a Furry Made Its Way Into the U.S. Military
You could always pull the air through both sides, one stream flowing towards the users head, the other away from the body.
The fan vents (or intakes?) out the back of your neck just outside the shirt if I understand correctly. I could see it maybe being useful if it takes that air and pulls it over the hot side of the peltier might be beneficial. It doesent need to do much more than a couple degrees. Ive moved to a very hot and humid country and im very interested in something like this or maybe that vest. My biggest issue though is just lack of airflow in a lot of places. Theres not enough room for more fans
What other wearable is more efficient?
than to carry something like an evaporative cooler
Evaporative coolers don’t really work in high humidity. If you live in an area that’s a dry hot, they work great. Summers in my area, though, are very muggy. Other than ice pack based products, the only passive coolers I’ve found work in humid environments are these sweat bands that have either desiccant beads in them or that stuff that’s in diapers. They pull the sweat away keeping it out of your eyes and give a little evaporative cooling at the same time.
It looks like there is a fan blowing the hot air away
Seems unfair that with all the US has contributed to obesity and global warming that they don’t get to have access to this.
