Keep Your Toes Toasty on the Ski Slopes with a Smart Boot Heating System

A day on the slopes skiing or snowboarding is a great time, but staying warm can be tricky. A good jacket and ski pants will keep your body from freezing, but the cold temperature and snow collecting on your boots will likely result in uncomfortably chilly toes. That’s why you should consider building Matej Planinšek’s Ski Boots Heating System.

As the name suggests, this is a device for heating up your ski boots to keep your feet warm. Don’t worry snowboarders, it should work for your boots too. It’s a straightforward design with a rechargeable 18650 lithium-ion providing power. That battery is enough to provide about 5.5 hours of heating at the max setting, and around 8 hours at the medium setting.

The 18650 battery sits in a 3D-printed holder on the back of the boot and connects to a power management PCB. That PCB is built on an Arduino-compatible ATmega328P microcontroller, which has circuits for recharging, cell protection, and heater control. That, in turn, connects to a second PCB that has the heating coil, and is placed under the boot’s insole. If you want a reusable way to keep your feet warm during a day of skiing, this seems like a great setup.