Bengaluru techie develops AC helmet for riders’ comfort

A Bengaluru-based mechanical engineer has designed an air-conditioned helmet that keeps you cool.

Sandeep Dahiya, Director with a multinational company, in an attempt to create user-friendly product, has invented this air-conditioned helmet called “Vatanukul”, at a garage-turned-workshop.

Vatanukul works on DC power (12 volts) supplied by the bike battery and no other external energy is required for the cooling effect. Vatanukul weighs not more than 1.7kg, while the weight of most helmets in the market is in the range of 800 grams to 2kg. The air-conditioned helmet has two parts the first component is manifold that has rubber tubes for air circulation inside the helmet; the other is the wear-on unit which is like a backpack. The wear-on unit includes a reverse thermo couple, heat exchanger, control and blower unit.

The heat exchanger takes care of air-cooling and there is no need for ice or water. The heat exchanger (used in spaceships) has a semiconductor which helps in either dropping or increasing the temperature. The helmet has no power supply, but has air circulators in the form of rubber tubes. It is connected to a remote-like handy AC control device.

Sandeep has designed eight different models in four and a half years prior to this cooling helmet, what according to him is a ‘perfect product’.  He has been using the helmet while riding from his RT Nagar home to his office in UB City, and has been testing it for a month.