material is mixed with a reactant and caused to swell the swellable energizing element 20 may be used in conjunction with a standard setting mechanism or the energizing elements discussed above for example the packer may be set by compression and then energized further with a swellable material in another embodiment energizing element 20 could be a bag or container which is energized with gas or other compressible material and placed beneath seal layer 16 the bag can be compressed at its ends once the packer is in the proper position downhole the compression of the bag will cause the bag to compress lengthwise and expand radially to energize the seal element 10 a gas chamber or spring behind a piston could maintain the compression to keep the seal energized a spiral spring 28 as shown in fig4 a and 4b can be used as energizing element 20 this option could be constructed of either a long length of metal or as a succession of small independent springs fig4 a shows spring 28 in its compressed state and fig4 b shows spring 28 in its expanded state another option would be to use a bow 30 as energizing element 20 as shown in fig5 a and 5 b bow 30 will move outward when engaged by wedge 32 when bow 30 contacts support sleeve 18 bow 30 will elasticity deform and store mechanical energy instead of using piecewise parts a tube 34 with slots 36 can be used slots 36 can be helical or straight fig6 shows tube 34 with helical slots 36 tube 34 will expand when compressed axially multiple layers of tubes 34 or energizing elements 20 could be used to increase the energy stored in addition the present invention may provide.