Judging on the many emails we receive from our readers, especially motor bike enthusiasts about heated clothing, this type of clothing is in hot demand, even more so now with cold weather outside.

No serious motorbike owner likes to stop riding the bike just because it is cold but everyone feels more comfortable to stay warm.

Many ask about this cool/hot carbon fiber textile technology that gives even warmth over a complete surface but I haven’t found yet a source from where to buy in smaller quantities suitable for the DIY community.

The next best thing for making your own heated pants or jacket is by using electrically resistive wires and sew it into pants or jackets.

A excellent overview showing how to create heated clothing can be found on Instructables. You will not only see how to integrate the whirring into pants but it also has a wealth of background information about clothing heating theory (the electrical part), links to other interesting information resources and the complete material list.

If you are one of the many motorbike fans and don’t want to stop circling around this winter, click over and start hacking you pants.

Quiksilver introduces a battery powered heat vest that can be worn under any wetsuit. The CYPHER PS+ Heat Vest System delivers hours of heat to maintain core temperature allowing enthusiastic surfer to extend their surfing experience in cooler conditions.

The Cypher PS+ Heat Vest utilizes flexible water proof carbon pads to house the powered heat elements and distribute heat to the body and water within the wetsuit.

These pads are incorporated into a light weight polypropylene vest which can be worn under any wetsuit and serves as an additional thermal layer.

Far Infra-Red heat technology (we posted about it some time ago) is a safe and therapeutic form of heat that is free from hot wires or electromagnetic fields. The far infra red heat technology has been incorporated into flat flexible carbon pads to distribute heat and seal it off from direct water contact.

The CYPHER PS+ Heat Vest System comes with rechargeable battery that will last 2 hours on ‘High’ setting and has two other setting option of ‘medium’ and ‘low’ spanning a temperature range from 116 – 129 degree Fahrenheit.

Heated clothing is opening more and more clothing segments  showing once again how technology enhanced clothing can add value that is/was not possible before wearable electronic development took place.

The Quiksilver Cypher PS+ Heated Vest retails for around 199.- and is available on various surf shops online like this one.

It might not seem to be the best time of the year to talk about heated clothing but I learned recently about an advanced textile technology, the Far Infrared (FIR) fibers which are not only used as textile heating elements in cold weather clothing but they are widely used in the therapeutically clothing segment as well.

First some basics of far infrared: Far infrared rays are part of the sunlight spectrum that is invisible to the human eye. The wavelength of infrared waves range from 0.76 micron to 1,000 microns. This range is further subdivided into the ranges of Near, Medium, and Far-Infrared Rays.

Far Infrared fibers are made of a blend of polypropylene and special lead-free bio-ceramics. The ceramic is the key for ‘emitting’ the far infrared rays.

The bio-ceramic is ground into micro particles in nano scale and is either inseminated into the polypropylene during the polypropylene fiber forming process or for impregnation through a soaking or coating process.

Interesting how the FIR fibers work: it starts with the fact that the human body constantly emits thermo energy. When the bio-ceramic is stimulated by the thermo energy of the human body, it converts it into the far infrared rays and reflects it back into the human body penetrating the skin up to a depth of 3 inches.

According to the medical literature, there are no know side effects coming from far infrared rays. Far infrared clothing can benefit the human body in a gradual and constant way as studies have shown. People wearing these clothes demonstrate improved blood circulation and energy level. This effect is used as treatment method for people suffering from Arthritis and similar conditions.

The very same FIR fibers are used in some advanced heated clothing as well. For heated clothing, an additional power source (battery) is used to stimulate the warmth radiating properties of FIR fibers giving off a soothing warmth even in the coldest winter (or sometimes even summer) days.

Christopher Campbell, William Schake and Rashad Reynolds, electrical engineering students at the University of Akron set out to solve an age old problem:

During early spring and late autumn the weather can vary quite a bit from day to day, even from hour to hour. Snow flakes in the morning and temperate weather in the afternoon. Unfortunately, while the weather may change, our clothing does not once you’ve decided what to wear when you leave the house in the morning.

The answer: creating a personal heating system, soft and ‘invisible’ enough to integrate into lightweight jackets. When the temperature is nicely warm the light jacket is doing a fine job but when the temperature is heading south the intelligent heating systems kick in keeping you comfy warm.

The team hacked a jacket by integrating various heating zones in arm, chest and back area which can be temperature controlled individually via a Palm Treo cellular phone but could be ported to Windows Mobile devices or iPhone/iPod Touch.

The heating zones can be switched on manually or automatically via temperature sensors throughout the jacket which monitor the preferred temperature setting. The desired temperature can be set for each heating area via a slider on the phones screen.

The user interface displays data like current external air temperature, manual mode status, automatic mode status, desired set temperatures, current zone temperatures as well as current estimated battery life and has a warning at 50% battery life to suggest entering “econo-mode” where the jacket would set temperatures automatically to 65 degrees to preserve battery life.

The personal climate regulating system is build around a LilyPad Arduino which is connected via a d-sub connection to the temperature sensors and the heating elements. The PDA is connected to the LilyPad through a custom cable that plugs right in to the output port of the PDA. The e-textile heating components used are sponsored from Gerbing, a Seattle based company specialized in heated clothing.

The whole system is called ‘Climate Wear‘, a great concept design to address a real world, often annoying problem many people face during the change of seasons in certain areas on our planet.

The team around Chris envisions a system optimization for a more seamless integration into clothing but they also want to keep the system ‘movable’ to reuse the smart part of this heated jacket when consumer buy a newer style of a ‘Climate Wear’ ready jacket.

Can one of the outdoor apparel brands pick this up and have it ready for next autumn? I love the idea to control my jackets’ temperature via an iPhone App.

Heated jackets are still in fashion as winter is not yet over in some areas. Today’s most fashionable heated jackets use carbon fiber materials making heated garments lightweight and allow slim designs unlike ‘old fashion’ heated clothing that’s bulky or contains cumbersome heating cables.

Brookstone added a chick looking heated jacket for women, a soft lightweight fleece jacket with a 3-level controller to get a bit of warmth at times it’s not as cold but beat the cold if needed with the higher setting.

Two heating areas are on the upper chest and one larger heating area on the upper back to ensure even warmth distribution.

Keep in mind that heated clothing works best if the heating garment is snugly around the body and as close as possible to the skin. Too many other layers of clothing between heating fabric and skin will dim down the warm-up effect. After all, the point of using heated clothing is to eliminate the need of many other layers of clothing.

This jacket comes with 5 layers of weather protection: Micro-fleece, a Windblocking layer, Micro-fleece, a Heating Carbon Fiber Layer and Lining so you don’t have to bundle up a lot.

Available also in a mens version which retails for $149.99 and the women’s jacket for $179.95

I like the nice style of the jackets and the idea of not needing lots of layers of clothing to survive snugly warm the transition between winter and spring time.

[via: ChipChick]

Hong Kong based Pensonic Technology has developed in close collaboration with the University of Nottingham and Hong Kong University a line of heated garments ranging from jackets and vests for street wear and motorcyclist,  gloves and more.

The uniqueness of Pensonic’s ‘Volcanic Heat range‘ is the use of recycled carbon fibers giving them a second life as high tech clothing. The recycled carbon fiber retain many of the superior heating and electrical properties of its virgin counterparts.

In addition to the use of the recycled carbon fiber for heating elements in clothing, Pensonic is using the same material for textile switches to control not only the heat elements but can also be used to remote-control portable devices like  iPod, GPS and similar products.

The advantage of carbon fiber based heating textiles is the ultra flexibility of the material making it virtually unbreakable and extremely light weight (same weight as conventional textiles).

Using carbon fiber heating elements and fully textile based switches allows the complete and seamless integration of the heating system where there is no need to take out anything other than the battery pack when washing one of these smart heating garments.

Pensinoc’s heated apparels have a thin layer of special nano-material coating which makes the garments waterproof, anti-odor, anti-bacterial and stain resistant.

A lot of know how and technology has been combined into this heart warming garments making you invincible against the harsh winter days.

Pensonic is offering their technology and products to retailers only. Let’s hope these smart heating garments with recycled carbon fibers will find their way to the shop floor in time for next winter season.

Heated clothing is hot in demand this time of the year but so far, heated clothing could not be really classified as fashionable, okay looking but fashion and fit was second to function = keeping warm.

Polartec® is putting the fashion element of heated clothing on an equal level with function.

Their newest line of Polartec® Heat® Vests and Jackets pay attention to design needs of style and form for women, as almost all heated products on the market target men with little styling or fit for women’s figures.

Polartec’s heat panels are made of advanced conductive fabric which is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack, warming the Heat® fabric up to keep you comfy even during the harshest and coldest days.

A wireless remote control turns the system on and off or changes the heat levels without reaching inside the garment. The battery pack has been designed and located on the body with ergonomics in mind – it will not interfere with wearing comfort and movement.

The Heat® system is designed as a luxury system with extra features to make the jackets/vests as comfortable and unobtrusive as possible. But this does not mean the vests and jackets have a luxury price tag. The jackets go for $199.- and the vests for $169.- a small amount for staying warm and staying warm during the cold days is ….. priceless.

Polartec is offering the fashionable heated clothing line for women and men in limited quantities as introduction for this Christmas season in US and Canada. Availability of the fashionable heated garments in other continents and countries is planned for 2009.

Cold fingers rule at the moment, at least in the northern hemisphere. Waiting for the bus or train, skiing or snowboarding in the mountains, your fingers are the first hit be low temperatures.

Let’s have a look again to the heated glove market if there is a warm alternative to cold fingers. Sure, using good quality ‘normal’ gloves do the job but heated gloves give you really the cozy feeling in your finger tips.

We have covered heated gloves last December from Zanier but they come for around $ 500.- a price tag that might be too steep for some.

The Blazewear Deluxe Heated Gloves might just be the right thing for your cold fingers. These heated gloves feature carbon polyester based heating elements which warm up to 60 ºC with over three hours heating time delivered from rechargeable or standard 3x AA batteries in each glove.

Blazewear heated gloves are waterproof, windproof and include heating elements in the fingers and the back of hand, which means that the heat reaches the whole hand rather than just the palm.

Unlike the Zanier gloves, the Blazewear only have one heat setting where the on/off switch allows heat to be turned off if too warm but they come at a much lower prize for just $ 49.59 as seen on this online shop (delivery to EU only).

There is no need for cold fingers anymore with these really affordable heated gloves but you need to hurry if you want to buy a pair. We found very few shops which do have them in stock. According the manufacturer the next production will be only available for coming winter season 2008/09.

Gerbing, a Seattle based company, focuses on bringing a warm feeling in the coldest times of the year to their customers with high tech heated clothing.

Their collection of heated clothing technologies ranges from the more ‘conventional’ textile heating systems like insulated copper wires to Micro Wires and Nano Wire heat technology to high tech smart fabrics like Carbon Fiber Heat Technology.

That’s the technology we are warming up to – literally. High tech textiles is our field here at talk2myShirt.

A product that uses the Carbon Fiber technology is the LITE HEATED VEST LINER. As the name implies, it is a light weight vest that radiates a comfy temperature and can be worn under an outer jacket.

The Heated Vest is powered by a 7.4v lithium battery pack which gives 4 hours of heat on the highest setting or over 10 hours on the lowest setting.

Another ‘warming’ factor is the low cost of this vest, it comes for just $ 99.- including the battery pack and the charger. Available directly by Gerbing.

If you are in need for getting some additional heat when outdoors, you might want to check out Gerbing’s full system that let the wearer connect the different elements like jackets, pants, gloves and socks (all heated) via their standardized interconnection system – a smart idea that keeps you warm even if you have to be right in the center of the Arctic.

As we mentioned in our last review of heated clothing, ‘heated’ does not mean you will fry in your heated clothing, it will give up a controllable and comfortable amount of warmth. That’s why we call such fabrics also ‘smart textiles’