THERMOTAP

As a rising 11th grade student at Lexington High School, I had an opportunity to visit the Barmer district in the state of Rajasthan, located in the heart of the Thar Desert. People in rural Barmer do not live in villages, but rather scattered huts. The interiors of these huts are dark and people rely on kerosene lamps for lighting and cooking instead of electricity. Unfortunately, kerosene is flammable, produces poor quality light and its fumes and soot are harmful to health and the environment. I decided to develop the ThermoTap. It functions as a simple, affordable, and efficient tool that converts thermal energy to electricity. The resulting energy could be stored in any rechargeable battery and used for replacing the kerosene lamps with LEDs. All of the components in the ThermoTap are fairly common, affordable and durable. This simple design can facilitate future mass production at a reduced cost. Although the invention was inspired for use in Barmer, it can be used in or modified for similar climates elsewhere. The electricity stored in rechargeable batteries could be used for other purposes, such as charging cellular batteries and small flash lights.