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trebuchet03 · 12-06-2007, 12:28 PM

So I'm in the Senior Design class at my University and I get to see all of the projects everyone else does (in addition to mine, of course

). One project happens to be a Thermoelectric radiator for a car.

Basically, they're removing two tubes from a radiator and putting 4 banks of thermocouples in. Experimentally (mimicking conditions on one thermocouple) they've calculated power production of a tad more (or maybe it was a tad less) than 1.5kW (which was their target).

Here's an application I found through searching the interwebs...

http://www.hi-z.com/websit07.htm

http://www.hi-z.com/websit06.htm

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~weinfurt/thermoradio.htm

The Soviet Union had a Thermoelectric radio way back... If you had a coal fire in the stove, you could effectively say you are using a coal powered radio

I think I read somewhere that a modern car can use up to 3.5kW (compared to 1.5kW in the year 2000) as a result of flybywire, more control systems etc....

Comments?

12-06-2007, 12:28 PM	#1 (permalink)
trebuchet03 MechE Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bay Area Posts: 1,151 The Miata - '01 Mazda MX-5 Miata Thanks: 0 Thanked 21 Times in 18 Posts	ThermoElectric Radiator So I'm in the Senior Design class at my University and I get to see all of the projects everyone else does (in addition to mine, of course ). One project happens to be a Thermoelectric radiator for a car. Basically, they're removing two tubes from a radiator and putting 4 banks of thermocouples in. Experimentally (mimicking conditions on one thermocouple) they've calculated power production of a tad more (or maybe it was a tad less) than 1.5kW (which was their target). Here's an application I found through searching the interwebs... http://www.hi-z.com/websit07.htm http://www.hi-z.com/websit06.htm http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~weinfurt/thermoradio.htm The Soviet Union had a Thermoelectric radio way back... If you had a coal fire in the stove, you could effectively say you are using a coal powered radio I think I read somewhere that a modern car can use up to 3.5kW (compared to 1.5kW in the year 2000) as a result of flybywire, more control systems etc.... Comments? __________________ Cars have not created a new problem. They merely made more urgent the necessity to solve existing ones.