thermoelectric and pyroelectric power generation

[morpher44]

star wars technology -- LOL!

Thermo Electric Generator-eng

Reminds me of that scene from "men who stare at goats".

[Freezer]

@Freezer
My meter was showing millivolts ... so I got from 1.5 to 3 millivolts.
It was kinda disappointing, but I did not use German Silver wire
liked called for in the book. Perhaps that wire with copper has
a more dramatic result.

I doubt it will drive a Joule Thief until I can get upwards to 10 milliamps
and 1 volt or so. Its probably possible with enough wire pairs or
a hotter source of heat.

I may fork out for an off-the-shelf solution since this seems like
a nice nite-time way of producing power to charge a battery
or run some low-power electronics.
During a power failure, everyone pulls out their candles.
Wouldn't it be cool if you could drive a thermopile and run
a radio or something. It might be a good emergency power
solution. I'm surprised you can't buy this on the market today.

Its also interesting that you can run electrogenerators in reverse
to produce cooling.

Curious thing is I read an article about a year ago, about a military company who came up with a 100% efficient thermoelectric module, but haven't seen any news about them, and am sure they probably wouldn't sell it to the public. I had the idea that you could stick copper heatsink material into the ground for the cooling side, and some type of black absorbent material to soak up the heat from the sun, for the hot side, but I guess it would be better to use solar for now.

The thermo generator I have was producing about .25 volts with 40mA short circuit with a warm cup of water, so I think it has potential.

I think this guy uses 2 modules stacked which might get better efficiency, or he's doing this in series for higher voltage, but seems to work well.

YouTube - Thermoelectric power generator

Reminds me of that scene from "men who stare at goats".

I want to see that movie. It's actually based on reality, even though they will probably distort the facts. It is totally possible to do these types of things with the mind. Look into the military remote viewing programs. Ingo Swann was the master at this stuff. I have his book downloaded from the internet called Penetration-The Question of Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Human Telepathy. Very interesting read.. The scary thing is they used this knowledge to actually kill people by stopping their hearts. These guys even stated they could disable computers with the same technique. Don't ever want to cross these guys lol..

If you have time might take a look at this interview. Not exactly what Swann was doing, it was more of the dark side of the program. Just like most things, it can be used for good and bad.

YouTube - Project Camelot interviews Duncan O'Finioan

[morpher44]

another thermo-electric video

@ Freezer

Nice video.
Here is another one with a radio...

YouTube - Thermoelectric Generator Powering Radio
and this...
yuck ... BeeGees...
YouTube - Candle Power Radio

[jmincher3]

Hello, all! I'm new, but eager to contribute & learn.

I did a little research on thermoelectricity a few months ago, and was re-inspired by the experiment Morpher44 posted on YouTube. I've been digging into the topic (obsessively, according to my wife) ever since. I have some ideas, but as I haven't actually done any experimentation, they are all theoretical. I'm happy to share another time, but I want to comment on previous posts first.

@Tishatang--"I am curious by the use of violet glass from the example in the old book. Why not clear glass. Doesn't violet block out infra-red? Not my area of knowledge, but seems to me violet is a long way from the infra-red that carries heat."

I looked into this after reading your post, and from what I've found, it's precisely the opposite. Apparently, violet glass has high transmission in the infrared & ultraviolet ranges, but very low in the visible range. The description from The Boy Electrician, "The sun's heat, imprisoned by the violet glass...", suggests that the inventor was trying to capitalize on the glass's transmissivity of IR. I tend to think a matte black paint would work better, but I could be wrong. I can't say whether clear glass is more or less efficient. It may be relevant that violet glass was fairly common during the Victorian era, being used in jewelry & home decorations, such as doorknobs. Now it is used primarily for photographic color filters & period restoration. There are a couple packaging companies that specialize in producing violet & dark violet glassware for food/beverage (beer & wine) containers, because it blocks visible light & UVA.

"German-silver wire? Maybe common back then?" German Silver was common at the turn of the century, and before. It was reformulated in the early 19th century as an imitation alternative to silver. More contemporary alloys having similar formulations are known as Cupronickels (Constantan), are used in thermocouples among other things: Cupronickel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


One of the properties to look at when pairing up metals/semiconductors is the Seebeck coefficient. Dissimilarity between the metals isn't necessarily enough to guarantee an efficient or even measurable effect. The Seebeck coefficent is the measure of potential difference (millivolts) per degree K difference between the hot & cold end of the material (remember that Celsius & Kelvin scales have the same slope).

I haven't had much luck finding a complete source, but I have found this table at http://www.efunda.com/designstandard...le_theory.cfm:

Thermoelectric Sensitivity

The Seebeck coefficients (thermoelectric sensitivities) of some common materials at 0 °C (32 °F) are listed in the following table.

Material Seebeck
Coeff. *

Aluminum 3.5
Gold 6.5
Rhodium 6.0
Antimony 47
Iron 19
Selenium 900
Bismuth -72
Lead 4.0
Silicon 440
Cadmium 7.5
Mercury 0.60
Silver 6.5
Carbon 3.0
Nichrome 25
Sodium -2.0
Constantan -35
Nickel -15
Tantalum 4.5
Copper 6.5
Platinum 0
Tellurium 500
Germanium 300
Potassium -9.0
Tungsten 7.5
*: Units are mV/°C; all data provided at a temperature of 0 °C (32 °F)

The above table also reveals some possible wire pairings. For instance, iron or copper can be put on the positive terminal while constantan can be used for the negative terminal of a thermocouple circuit (Type J and T).


If I understand correctly, the net potential difference of the thermocouple element is given by the absolute value of the sum of the Seebeck coeeficients (Cu, S=6.5/Constantin, S=-35; Net S=41.5 millivolts/degree).


I have much more to talk about, but it is getting late & I can’t seem to organize my thoughts….

[Tishatang]

Found this old book on thermo electricity here:

Internet Archive: Free Download: Electricity: theoretically and practically considered, by the aid of thermo-electricity

Near end of book is his invention of thermo furnace putting out 96 volts at 11 ohms resistance. Would this be about 800 watts accordingly to ohms law?

[jmincher3]

By my calculations, yes...@837.8 Watt & @ 8.73 amps.

I'll have to read that! The numbers are impressive. That is definitely useful power.

[morpher44]

TEG Power

I saw the movie "The Book of ELI" this weekend. The trader/tech guy that can
charge up an iPod ... can trade for some good stuff from Eli. :-)

In Haiti, there are folks providing a "charge up your cellphone"
service.

Thermoelectric generators, to me, seem like the ideal
emergency power source -- and work at night too if you
have a source of heat (or cooling).

This website has some interesting things:

Thermoelectric Generators Wholesale

I also saw some TEG chips on ebay -- $16.99, free shipping.
I'm gonna get me one.
They look very interesting.
It would be very neat to drive a Joule Thief lighting circuit
with a TEG chip ...

I suspect you can place one of these near your heater vents and
produce power. Your already heating your home ... why not
charge your cell phone from some of that heat?

[sigzidfit]

Hey morpher44,

How was the movie? I haven't seen it but I got to be an extra in the town scenes in The Book of Eli. Parts of the movie were shot in a town near me and they had a casting call for rough looking locals with long hair and beards and I fit what they were looking for.

The directors told us about the battery charging element of the plot and I told them I could give tech advice on the subject but they didn't take me up on the offer. Haha.

Anyway, it was lot's of fun being on the set of a big production like that. Had the time of my life and thought I'd share.

Peace
PJ

[morpher44]

Book of Eli

Hey morpher44,

How was the movie? I haven't seen it but I got to be an extra in the town scenes in The Book of Eli. Parts of the movie were shot in a town near me and they had a casting call for rough looking locals with long hair and beards and I fit what they were looking for.

The directors told us about the battery charging element of the plot and I told them I could give tech advice on the subject but they didn't take me up on the offer. Haha.

Anyway, it was lot's of fun being on the set of a big production like that. Had the time of my life and thought I'd share.

Peace
PJ

The movie was great. Congrats on your role in it.
Yea the iPod charging bit was fun.

[marchse]

All Pyroelectric materials are piezoelectric.


Power Plant Development

[ashtweth]

I just got an Ultra sound (no i am not having a baby ) And found out they operate using a synthetic piezo that’s “smoother” and helps the adequate sounds waves for imaging, synthetic piezo apparently

[Angelinabv]

HI,

Thanks for sharing
Power Plant Developers

[morpher44]

Copper Oxide Thermoelectric Generator Can Light LED

Copper Oxide Thermoelectric Generator Can Light LED - YouTube