On Sep 27, 2014, at 8:09 AM, Peri Hartman via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org> wrote:
> Have you looked at thermoelectric generators? That would be Peltier coolers run in reverse. Not just heat-generating reverse as opposed to cooling (which is a matter of reversing the positive and negative leads), but taking an existing thermal gradient and transferring heat from the hot side to the cold side and getting electricity as a result. It's not going to generate very much power. It's probably most commonly used in space applications where a radioactive source supplies the heat -- a nuclear battery, long-lived but low-power. Next most common is for low-power applications where you've already got waste heat and don't need much power and, for whatever reason, it's easier and / or cheaper to use such a (generally expensive) device than to run a wire. As the blurb at the site you posted puts it: > This device is not much bigger than a piece of confetti. In low-grade thermal > environments, the eTEG generates micro-watts of power – enough thermal energy > conversion to power remote sensors and other distributed devices. I could see a winning solar challenge race car design that primarily uses PV panels but also uses TEGs to scavenge enough extra watts to eke out an extra car length over the runner-up by the end of the race...but that's assuming the added weight isn't a killer. Could just as easily be a net loss...especially once you take into account the need to cool the cold side. It's worth crunching the numbers on it, but might not be worth more. b& -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 801 bytes Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20140927/331f43c8/attachment.pgp> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
