So you’re in LA when “the big one” hits and the power goes out… and stays out for days. It’s going to be painful going without your phone—disconnected from the world. Psych! You’re covered because you are the smart owner of the FlameStower, a device that “efficiently captures excess heat from cooking or campfires to charge your USB-powered devices.” If you’re an outdoor enthusiast that wants to stay connected while camping or if you are the type who likes to be prepared for any type of situation, you definitely need to give this impressive—nay—ingenious device some attention.
A lot of attention went into designing this grillable gear. Andrew Byrnes, FlameStower’s co-founder, explains, “With FlameStower we’re literally playing with fire. Safety, performance, and durability drive our core design, and we’ve worked really hard to take the collapsability as far as possible. We’ve literally fought over every millimeter of our device (a big thanks to our design partners, WAGIC Inc, for putting up with us over the last few months!)”
How was such a crazy-cool idea cooked up? “A few weeks after coming up with the idea of FlameStower, we found ourselves in Professor Mark Thurber’s office in Stanford’s program on energy and sustainable development,” explains Andrew. Mark had just done a bunch of research with cookstoves in India and told Andrew and his co-founder to, “Just make an affordable something that can let people cook a pot of rice and charge a cell phone at the same time.”
Andrew’s enthusiasm for the product is evident. “When the lights turn on and your phone starts charging, and you realize its just fire and water, that’s pretty magical. It still amazes us, and is a reminder that there is still so much room for innovation in energy.”