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It would be cool to test the thermoelectric setup by making the entire exhaust of a car with them. Something that runs lean like the Civic VX might be able to produce enough heat for a long enough distance in the exhaust system to power the headlights at night as well as the ignition system. One might have to improve the ignition system's efficiency a tad, or just replace all lights with LEDs to make it plausible.
Of course, with a price tag of $124 each for the HZ-14 units and needing at least 70 of them to replace the alternator altogether. VX alternator = 90A (90A x 12V = 1080W) and 70 HZ-14 units = 980W. That would be a cost of $8804, not including the ceramic plates, heat transfer grease, and shipping needed to make this project happen at this time.
Now if the effects of not having an alternator and belt dragging on the D15Z1 would net you a generous 15% improvement in FE, let's go with an average MPG of 50 for the VX. That would be a new average of 57.5 MPG. You'd save just over 1 gallon of gas every tank. So if Gasoline was $3/gallon it would take 2934 tanks to cover the cost of the units. I know it takes me about two weeks to use up a tank of gas, so that would take nearly 112 years to cover the cost simply via the savings.
I might be way off on my calculations since I've just had lunch and a slightly lethargic brain. Really cool concept though...and one heck of an expensive muffler.
If things go well though, the prices should come down as the cost of the technology decreases.
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