Thermo generator fun experiment

[joeblack5]

Just thought I share our wood pellet stove thermo generator experiment.

Salvaged some 40*40mm peltier elements from thrown away coolers.

Used a 1/4" strip aluminum as heat spreader against the stove.
Used old pentium 2 heatsinks
There are 4 peltier elements in series.
Temp of hot side is about 100c , cold side about 65c.
With free Harborfreight light on the voltage is 2.7 volt.( See fluke)

With a little more cooling the extracted power is about 0.48 watt...3.2 volt and 0.15amp.

We used two hard disk magnets to pull the whole thing to the stove. They are adjusted so that they stay 0.5 mm away from the stove to prevent them from loosing magnetism.

This all as experiment and teach out daughter some ohm's law.

Enjoy,
Johan

[Rucker]

Originally Posted by joeblack5

Just thought I share our wood pellet stove thermo generator experiment.

Salvaged some 40*40mm peltier elements from thrown away coolers.

Used a 1/4" strip aluminum as heat spreader against the stove.
Used old pentium 2 heatsinks
There are 4 peltier elements in series.
Temp of hot side is about 100c , cold side about 65c.
With free Harborfreight light on the voltage is 2.7 volt.( See fluke)

With a little more cooling the extracted power is about 0.48 watt...3.2 volt and 0.15amp.

We used two hard disk magnets to pull the whole thing to the stove. They are adjusted so that they stay 0.5 mm away from the stove to prevent them from loosing magnetism.

This all as experiment and teach out daughter some ohm's law.

Enjoy,
Johan

Nice experiment, and more practical than a windmill.

[HamSkoolie]

Originally Posted by Rucker

Nice experiment, and more practical than a windmill.

0.48 W for 24 hours produces a whopping 11.52 W.
Sure it can be "upsized" but at what cost and space requirement? It would take 208 times the size to produce 100 W instantaneous and while that could be enough to run some basic lights and charge a cell phone or two, it's hardly practical compared to a wind generator that can put out much more power without a constant heat source to supply the temperature differential to drive the peltier modules.
I suppose a bunch of these scavenging energy from the waste heat of the engine exhaust, diesel parking heaters, wood stove, etc. could provide a useable amount of energy but PRACTICAL? I don't see it.
A wind generator or engine driven generator would be much more practical.

[Rucker]

Originally Posted by Rucker

Nice experiment, and more practical than a windmill.

...which should give everyone a good idea of how practical I think windmills are.