1274 A Large Peltier Device

[ChaosAndy]

Hello from germany and thanks for a lot of nice videos. Well, i played a lot with this peltiers and here is a little hint before connecting them to parallel. The internal resistance differs a much and a good way for checking is connecting them to a power supply and check the amperes. I got differences between 2-3A by a group of about 50 peltier elements. So before putting them in parallel it is required to group them, otherways it is like putting batteries with different voltages in parallel. Projected to peltier the current from the better ones will heat up the others and the voltage breaks down.

[Tore_Lund]

About thermal contact: I've had success with lapping Peltier modules. Off the factory, they are somewhat crooked, so instead of using an excessive amount of thermal paste, I ran them across some fine wet sanding paper to plane them. This improved Delta T by a few degrees. (When you can see the shadow of the individual junctions through the ceramic plate, they've had enough!). Also keeping multiple Peltier devices between the same two plane surfaces might not be consistent as they also are of varying thickness. Ideally you want them individually in compression at their force limit according to their data sheet, preferably spring loaded or with the screws in plastic bushings, to take up thermal expansion. I run a single 40W Peltier device as a generator on my bedroom heating pipe. The pipe is at 53 C and ambient is 19-21 C during winter, so it only produces 0.6V! This I run through a boost converter to make 5V at 50mA, which is sufficient to keep my sat alarm clock always charged during winter, In summer the radio is charged by a 20W solar panel in my bedroom window (mostly indirect sunlight, so a 20W panel is what it took). Nice to know we wont oversleep during the apocalypse.

[garywillis]

Very interesting, looking forward to learning more!
Thanks Robert

[rastamanralph]

I was given a stove top fan like that and I actually thought about putting loads of them together to make power. Glad you did it to show me it works. Cheers👍😉

[abbiebeast]

To generate power efficiently you need type TEG, type TEC is used for refrigeration.

[Scott_C]

Heat it with the sun and a Fresnel Lens? Like the parts from one of those monitors?

[JerryPaulTreeCreations]

Great way to harvest concentrated sunlight! Might even be able to give solar panels a run for their money, considering that you could potentially produce power with this device in the depths of winter by using the opposite side. For example, in the far north, where in the winter there is hardly any sunshine during the day at all.
Thanks again for another awesome video!

[jeffreycoulter]

I'm thinking sterling engine. Also thinking about using the sun and a fresnel lens

[nlabanok]

Great work...thanks for sharing. Always thought provoking and insightful. I'm off on other avenues myself right now but to contribute to this community I'll offer a couple of optimization suggestions learned & earned over the course of two decades developing microprocessor cooling solutions.

First, one could cut the grafoil used to interface directly with TE devices into discrete pads sized for the TE device footprint instead of just laying down a large sheet of grafoil. This will "funnel" heat flow through the TE device and save on the grafoil used....although it will increase time spent cutting these discrete grafoil pads. Additionally, areas without a TE device could be insulated with something like an aerogel blanket...again a synthetic way of funneling the heat flow through the TE devices so that heat flow/electrical potential is not wasted through non-peltier directed pathways.

Anyway, can't thank you enough for the energy related content you continue to create & share. Cheers !

[marcisaacs]

Used to use this device to cool photomultiplier tubes and they are stackable 🙏 fan essential

[jjhackr]

You may be using the wrong peltier devices. I made a candle powered lamp and used a 10 watt led. It output about 6 watts with only 2 thermoelectric generators. That's about 2 amps, roughly 1 amp per TEG which surprises me since your massive setup only made 0.2 amps

[kevinleebailey]

I tried this last summer using solar heat . The hot side was placed in an insulated box with a glass lid a bit like a solar oven. If I go back to that project I'll try some reflectors on it to increase the power output.

[Patriarchtech]

This is what I am here fore. These devices are seemingly inefficient. But they are low cost, solid state and so simple. If setup in the right way and the right scenario they are game changers and it is awesome.

[millamulisha]

You can make these pretty easily using the two different metals inside. I saw a guy make a huge (not as efficient) one from old coat hangers which had the right metal in them (weird I know). Think it was tesalonian (err spelling) here on YT? 🍻

[jbattle]

I would love to see the heating on the bottom of a boat and a fresnel lens for the top. Love these videos, I'm new here but can't get enough.

[BakamonNO]

I made a peltier generator with a evacuated tube two years ago. It worked very well. The cooling side could be left in a stream of water or buried slightly underground to disperse the heat

[dgpreston]

The larger, the better.
I'm looking forward to this particular mini-series. Have always been curious if the DC generated, applied to a fan on the cold side, would appreciably boost current.

[davdbone]

You could do 10x10 on a plate (painted black)stick it in the sun and cool the back with cold water, im thinking one of those little dc water pumps off ebay. Old fridges would be a good source of parts for the cold side.

[Charlie-Oooooo]

Maybe some simple evaporative cooling instead of just water?

[ThunderDivine]

Awesome u did it, smack it on the hotplate and try 180 degrees celcius and leave the heatsink in room temp. then see it perform. My stove gets too over 200 degrees celcius where the fan is standing it can handle the temp no problems.