Quote:
Originally Posted by Newton
i'll be sure to keep you all posted, i'll start a thread probably when i do it seeing as how there's a bit of wiring needing to be done so that when the temperature gradient is gone they don't pull power from the battery and become heat pumps (one side gets hot the other side gets cold, they're kinda inefficient so that keeps them from being used for heating/air conditioning) the two i have on the way (probably another week or two) are 20A @ 12v each so if i wire them in parallel then i can get 40A @ 12v. The replacement alternator for my geo will produce 50A and i doubt that it's producing that constantly so i imagine at 40A i'll have some extra juice to use for the rest of the car. On paper this should work, only issues i have to tackle first is that they cannot exceed 68C (154F) so i'm going to go pick up a laser thermometer, i might have to bolt a plate above the engine at the correct height that it will get close to but won't exceed 68C
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I have played with these. The peltier effect induces a flow of heat energy with a flow of electrons. The opposite effect, what is discussed here, is called the seebeck effect. IE, a current is induced by a flow of heat energy.
A novel concept, but I must say that efficiency is far from ideal. I had some 40w (maybe?) cells, and with a heat sink on top, and a candle underneath, I could hardly get enough power to spin a 5v computer fan. I think I measured the output at about 2V (which was high, usually much lower) and not much current to play with.
In my readings of the Seebeck effect, I seem to recall that high wattage peltier cells were actually the worst for the Seebeck effect. Somehow or another a low wattage cell would be more efficient for Seebeck. I could be wrong, though.