Brick
Brick is a product of my BA thesis with a title “A useful ceramic object”. My goal was to take advantage of the physical properties of ceramics and apply them to a relevant problem.
It gets cold outside
After realizing that a ceramic object could act as a heat battery it was natural to make the connection to camping since I have been in scouting my whole life. It can often get cold at night in your sleeping bag. From my own experience I know there are a lot of places where you can have a perfect summer day with the temperature above 30°C but it can drop under 10°C at night. There is also camping in spring, autumn and winter.
Heating your bed
In the time of writing my thesis I came across an interesting story through my grandmother. She told me she remembers how on cold winter evenings they would heat up an old ceramic brick and take it to their beds to keep their feet warm. This was another conformation that the project is going into right direction. In the end the product also got its name from this story.
Sleeping bag heater
Brick is a sleeping bag heater that takes advantage of the heat from the campfire or a stove. With a ceramic core topped with layers of stainless steel, cork and felt it keeps the user warm for up to 9 hours.
Use
Brick has a ceramic core and insulation combined from cork and felt. This allows the user to heat up the core in fire, safely pull it into the insulation part and close it tightly with a cap and a magnetic lock. Since this is a completely new product the user experience had to be thoroughly thought through to make it safe and easy to use.
Safety
Magnetic lock prevents the heater to open while sleeping with it in sleeping bag.
Comfort
Insulation is designed with an off-center hole for the core. This is a simple solution allowing the user to regulate temperature by turning the Brick.
Indication
A copper strip indicates the temperature due to thermal expansion. It also prevents the core to be pulled in when the temperature is too high. If the temperature goes over 150°C the strip deflects so much that it doesn’t fit into the stainless steel insert.
Location
Research has shown that compared to other parts of body feet temperature has the biggest impact on general temperature comfort of humans.
Efficiency
Brick keeps it heating effect for up to 9 hours depending on the conditions. This graph shows the temperature on the surface of the heater when used at night in a sleeping bag in a tent at the overnight atmospheric temperature of 15 – 13°C.
