Fontus: Someday cyclists won't have to worry about not having water in their vehicle. A device created by Kristof Retezár, an industrial design student at University Εφαρμοσμένων Τεχνών της Βιέννης, συγκεντρώνει και συμπυκνώνει την υγρασία του αέρα, ενώ το bike is in movement. He then fills a water bottle that is attached to the bike frame.
The name of the device is “Fontus”And took it from the Roman god of wells and springs. It uses the principle of thermoelectric cooling, in which an electric heat pump transfers heat from one side of the vessel to the other.
The Fontus device is still in the prototype stage. The design was recently a finalist at the 2014 James Dyson Award, an international design contest.
How does it work; According to his description product at jamesdysonaward.org, solar panels generate the electricity needed to cool the upper chamber of the device while the lower part is heated. As the bike moves forward, air enters the chamber, then cools as it moves through the upper chamber. The moisture from the air then condenses into water and drips into a bottle.
According to Retezár manufacturer with hot and humid weather, the product works best. In such climatic conditions Fontus can produce up to half a liter of water per hour. The system starts to work well when the temperature is at 20 degrees Celsius and the humidity reaches 50 per cent. Under these conditions, the product produces about one drop of water per minute.
These climatic conditions of course are not easy to find in Vienna. So to test the system, Retezár had to simulate different atmospheric conditions in his bath.
The device does not yet have a cleaning system, so the existing design is not ideal to operate in a dirty city.
The basic features of the device are not too expensive as the manufacturer says. It has calculated that the cost of the original device is between 25 and 40 dollars. However, this may change depending on future changes, as the device needs improvements.
