Electric WAI

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by Cobb

BULL CRAP!!!!!!!!!

So tell us how cold you are in Miami. And try to convince those of us who live in much colder climates that Miami Florida isn't much warmer than where we are.

[wmjinman]

Just checked the National Weather Service forecast, and the lowest predicted low all week for Miami is 63. Yeah, pretty chilly - HAH!!

It would be nice if we could reach that for a HIGH around here right now!!!! We just had the warmest day in about two weeks, and the HIGH was about 15 degrees lower than that! 48, I think... The snow & ice was melting like crazy!!

[RedDevil]

I think both Miami and '81 Rabbit are a joke, or maybe a wish list
Cobb has had his fair share of sub zero in the country.

[Cobb]

Its disinformation. I work for the gumberment fighting terrorism and need to leave doubt about my true id.

But those who have met me in person will agree its a climate I wear pjs and a short sleeve shirt.

[RedDevil]

Bump. Because it is cold again and I bought this:

USD $ 3.88 - TEC1-12706 72W Semiconductor Thermoelectric Cooler Peltier (White), Free Shipping On All Gadgets!
and some thermal heatsink compound, but no heatsink (yet).

The idea is to glue one end to a panel or strut and the other end to a heat sink, and draw intake air through that heat sink.
The Peltier element should heat the air more efficiently than a wire heater would.

I also have an old grill with an adjustable thermostat, which I hope can switch the Peltier element off at room temperature and above so it would disengage when the temperature rises. It only needs to heat the air when the engine is cold.
Heck, I can switch it around to cool the air if I need more power

I was also curious about the Seebeck effect; heating one end, cooling the other and harvesting the power generated by the element.
Turns out that the voltage stays well below 1 volt unless the temperature difference gets really big, and the current is tiny even when shorted.
You'd need several of these in series to get a workable voltage and hundreds in parallel to get an useful current.
If you would cover all of the radiator with these it would still yield just a few watts.
No Seebeck generator for me

[mikeyjd]

Interesting thread and ideas. I can see why XYZ got banned lol...

[Ecky]

I'm not well-versed on TECs, are they actually efficient heaters? In the computer world, the cold side of TECs are often used to pull heat away from things.

[RedDevil]

It should be. It gets pretty hot pretty fast while the other side gets freezingly cold.
The hot side gets all the heat worth the power you put into it plus waht heat it sucks away from the cold side.
If the cold side has good thermal conductivity then the hot side could give more than twice as much heat as when you use resistance heating, for the same power.

If this build fails I'll use it to make a mini cooler in my central armrest

[Daox]

They're 10-15% efficient says the wiki:

Thermoelectric cooling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by Daox

They're 10-15% efficient says the wiki:

Thermoelectric cooling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know, but I intend to use it as a heater. Where resistive losses etc. work against the efficiency of a TEC as a cooler, it only works with the TEC as a heater.

I found this paper about using TECs as a heater:
https://www.enertron-inc.com/pdf/res...terization.pdf

For lower wattages, a TEC supplies significantly higher heat
than is input electrically.

I do not need much of a temperature differential and expect it won't pull that much power. The code (TEC1-12706) indicates it can pull up to 6 Ampere, and it was sold as a 12V 72W element so that seems to fit.

Reminds me I got to dismantle the broken toaster for its thermostat.
(dives into garden shed)