Joule Ringer!

[Slider2732]

@Bodkins - Yours is a name i've read of, but didn't know you were a Yorkshireman. Thought you were USA based.
I think what you've got there are stressed dielectrics with a capacitive accumulation.
In Tesla's boat Patent from 1898 ( Patent US613809 - TESLA - Google Patents ), he talks of various methods to effect changes in receiving equipment. The use of insulated plates features.
Also, radiant energy collectors up in attics can make use of similarly isolated plates. By forming them as you did, it's like a capacitor, with the clingfilm acting as the dielectric...the sparking etc going off when you returned 8hrs later could, in my opinion, have been those spheres striking a harmonic resonant condition. Bouncing energy back and forth, as a slowly building capacitive but forceful coupling.

After all those egg-headed words i'm off for a coffee, much prefer your description method

Oh, Lidmotor - do you know of the best place to buy Peltier's ?
I have an idea for those as a room cooling idea. The Peltier sits on a windowsill and powers a small fan, that blows the cold from a tray of ice into the room. The hotter the day outside, the more efficient the Peltier.

[Lidmotor]

Jonny's circuit powered by Peltier modules

@Jonny, Slider, & All

I dug around in my parts bin and found a coulple of Peltier modules that will run the low voltage led oscillator. After palying with them awhile I decided to just put the MOT in the freezer for awhile and use the differential between that and room temperature to make it work. The two modules in series just sitting on top of the cold transformer worked so I made a video of it. I got the Peltier modules on Ebay a looooooong time ago. I don't remember much about them. The two of them in series was needed to get enough voltage with the temp difference I was using.

LED light using heat as energy source - YouTube

Lidmotor

[jonnydavro]

Hi Lidmotor.Really interesting experiment with the peltier modules.That Slider fellow is full of good ideas Temperature differentials are all around us so definatly an under exploited energy resource which could be used night and day.I like it .
If you painted one side black,would that work better in sunlight if the other side was cool?
You can also light another Led,placed across the primary coil so doubling your light output.
I wonder if the light could be amplified using the plastic bottle filled with water and a bit of bleach to stop algae growth that totoalas has shown?
I will try and get a peltier as there seems to be a lot of interesting ways they can be used and it will be fun trying to find new ones.
Thanks for spending experiment time on this.Jonny.

[T-1000]

Hi Lidmotor.Really interesting experiment with the peltier modules.That Slider fellow is full of good ideas Temperature differentials are all around us so definatly an under exploited energy resource which could be used night and day.I like it .

In exUSSR schools on basic physics there was simple experiment how to get voltage from heat too: solder two iron bolts together and heat up the junction. It will produce small electricity as well. Making heat battery like that could achieve constant electricity when used with gas/coal heater...
Thermoelectric effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Slider2732]

Yes indeed T-1000 and the copper experiments of Nyle Steiner:
Copper Oxide Thermoelectric Generator Can Light An LED

Combine with Jonny's circuit/a ringer circuit derivative and multiple circuits using the same source of heat might well lead to mains lightbulb experiments.
At least, that was the illuminating thought I just had

[totoalas]

Yes indeed T-1000 and the copper experiments of Nyle Steiner:
Copper Oxide Thermoelectric Generator Can Light An LED

Combine with Jonny's circuit/a ringer circuit derivative and multiple circuits using the same source of heat might well lead to mains lightbulb experiments.
At least, that was the illuminating thought I just had

Again great ideas from great thinkers

I will try this method with magnifying glass or fresnel lens from tv and see where it goes

totoalas

[wings]

great ideas from the past

neazoi

[wings]

great ideas from the past

neazoi

The New Power Pot Thermoelectric Generator | High Tech Gadgets

The PowerPot : First Thermoelectric USB Charger Charges Any USB Devices | TheTechJournal

World Markets Simplified: Tellurex tPOD5: a smart portable green thermoelectric power generator Daily News Stories, Interesting World News, Pharmaceutical News Headlines, Technology News, Innovation News, Breaking News, Sensational News Stories, Ente

[Lidmotor]

What is old --is new again

The New Power Pot Thermoelectric Generator | High Tech Gadgets

The PowerPot : First Thermoelectric USB Charger Charges Any USB Devices | TheTechJournal

World Markets Simplified: Tellurex tPOD5: a smart portable green thermoelectric power generator Daily News Stories, Interesting World News, Pharmaceutical News Headlines, Technology News, Innovation News, Breaking News, Sensational News Stories, Ente

Thanks Wings !
That was really interesting info on thermoelectric generators--old and new.
The new ones that run off a simple camp stove and put out 5 watts are great. I can do alot with that 5 watts using some of the new circuits. The only problem is that the generators work by burning something and I am trying to get away from that. Reality is that FIRE is with us for good it seems so we might as well use the waste heat for something useful.

Lidmotor

[Peanutbutter29]

sorry to bug

Thought I should try and offer a bit of tips here with TE's. I've used these pretty extensively in past projects. A auto frozen fish feeder (10 degree chamber in 80 degree room) and a chocolate tempering unit (variable hot / cold); are probably where I learned most. Wings links covers history well as it was understood for a long while before practical (early 80's for TEM).
Advancing is coming along decent with these as 100w for a TEC was max during the late 90's when I did most work. Now you can get modules in the 200w or more range. I used 100w for the fish feeder.
TEG's (designed for power out rather than in) didn't really evolve until more recently (again practically). I believe somewhere on PopSci is an article about Toyota using them in the next Hybrid exhaust.

When I first messed with these, there were only a handful of companies. Now there are many, but I found a couple still around; Ferrotec (also good FF place), Tellurex and INB thermoelectric.
Anyhoo; most companies are now offering TEG's along with TEC. Be sure you use a G for a G and not a C for a G!!!!

Tellurex has a few and I dealt with them 15 years ago, so they are reputable. Tellurex - Power generation products

INB used to have the highest power and affordable TEC's.

Last, the key with all TEM's (G or C) is delta across 4 temperature perspectives. It is good to know thermal conductivity (also good to know with LED's for heatsinks), as this is a major player in design.
Most TEM's are designed or will max around 50C delta across junctions. In either case G or C, this can be difficult to maintain. The TEG's use high temperature components as that is technically easier to maintain a delta. With cooling this delta is directly related to Hot / Cold side temps at a given power; however with G's this delta will determine net power out and should be maximized. It is hard to get a 50C delta with normal ambient environments as well.
In general, active work will have to be done to maintain this. An easy test would be to have a small burner (as most these power units use) and measure this temperature. Then place a heatsink or large thermally conductive block on top. Measure this temp and monitor. This "block" temperature will eventually equalize relative to the thermal conductivity with the ambient air. The equalized temperature here would be your "maximum active delta"; adding a module would reduce this delta some as you now add more thermal resistance. If you can get a proper block (active or passive) that will maintain a good delta; then your ready for TEG and power.

I suppose also it's important to note that all of these are still considered heat pumps; in that they remove heat. Although we use these for power or cooling; that is ultimately what is going on. This limits, to some degree, application; as such removing "waste heat" is, at this point, the most utilized area.
Industry use these currently where they already pump waste water and exhaust heat. The hybrid cars are adding since there is exhaust heat and high airflow for cooling.

@Lidmotor, I suppose after the above and wanting to get away from fire; there is a thought. It may be possible to use a few focusing mirrors (optimally on trackers), to focus light on to TEG's for the hot side. The cold side could be placed with large cooling block (heatsink) in a stream, river or other natural water source. This should be enough to get a given TEG to decent power. Not sure what the available wattages are now for these; I believe 50w was max not too long ago.

Thanks
PB

*(anyone know where to find a 8x8x6 project box? may have to mfg. one, ugh)

[Lidmotor]

Thermoelectric generators (TEGs)

@PB
Thanks for all the info on TEGs. I agree with you that maintaining the BIG temperature differential to make good power is the hard part. That is the main reason that I haven't done much with the idea over the years. Small 10 to 20 degree delta situations don't do much.

----Lidmotor

[wings]

@PB
Thanks for all the info on TEGs. I agree with you that maintaining the BIG temperature differential to make good power is the hard part. That is the main reason that I haven't done much with the idea over the years. Small 10 to 20 degree delta situations don't do much.

----Lidmotor

Seiko :
"Bi2Te3 thermopiles (most efficient at temperatures of 0 to 100 degrees Celsius) deposited onto thin film, it can generate 10 ľA at 3 V (6 V open circuit) with only 5 degrees Celsius of temperature difference"

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~thad/p/jou...lectronics.pdf

[Lidmotor]

Hot rock powered LED light

@ Jonny & All

I got the Reverse Joule Thief to run using a small transformer. Heat from a hot rock supplied the energy to Peltier modules for power. This circuit that uses very low voltage but a little higher amperage is very interesting.

Hot rock powered LED light - YouTube

Lidmotor

[jonnydavro]

Hi Lid.Great idea to use the small audio transformer.Its good to see it will work on such a small transforme r.
Thanks for posting the waveform too.Is it the same shape for both the small coreless transformer and the MOT?
Your use of hot rocks on the peltier is innovative thinking and a great use of one of natures natural occuring capasitors .
I have just recieved 2 peltier module's and it seems to be made from a ceramic type material.I think if we painted one side black then it may work as a type of solar cell but the sun just does not shine here in England so hard to test out.Cheers.Jonny.

[Lidmotor]

Heat differential powered devices

Hi Lid.Great idea to use the small audio transformer.Its good to see it will work on such a small transforme r.
Thanks for posting the waveform too.Is it the same shape for both the small coreless transformer and the MOT?
Your use of hot rocks on the peltier is innovative thinking and a great use of one of natures natural occuring capasitors .
I have just recieved 2 peltier module's and it seems to be made from a ceramic type material.I think if we painted one side black then it may work as a type of solar cell but the sun just does not shine here in England so hard to test out.Cheers.Jonny.

Jonny I have been working with my Peltier TEC modules and trying different heat differentials to see what works best. Ice cold vs room temp works pretty good for the TECs that I have. I can't find inexpensive TEGs yet. Today I got a simple pulse motor to run using the heat coming off my laptop computer cooling fan vs room temp. You need a 20 to 30 degree difference to get anything useful. If you have the common white TECs like I have you really have to be careful that you don't overheat them to make power or you will ruin them. The TEC modules really were not designed to be used as generators but mine seem to work OK. I have kept the temps between the freezing and boiling point of water. What I like is the amperage that comes out of these things. That is what we were missing with the homemade batteries.

Here are my TECs powering a simple pulse motor using just computer cooling fan heat vs room temp. It would run the Reverse Joule Thief but just barely. You really need a 30 degree shift to get the circuit to make light. This here is about a 20 degree difference (95 vs 75).

Computer heat powering a simple pulse motor - YouTube

Lidmotor