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Problem with thermoelectric generator for phone

Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 1:44 pm
by vitallica
Hello,

I wanted to charge my phone while i will be in the woods so i thought a thermoelectric generator will do the job.

I have bought 4 thermoelectric "tabs" however you call it.
I bought these:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-lo ... 65945.html

A heatsink and heat transfer paste.

My problem is that i only output 0.26volts. I have 2 wired in series and have these 2 wired in parallel.

Here are some images of it all.

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Re: Problem with thermoelectric generator for phone

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:02 am
by techman
Nice work but I would try more heat. A tiny candle of that size will not make much difference. Most commercial TEG modules sit on a wood stove which generates a lot of heat.

Just make sure to keep the cold side as cool as possible in order to pull off that heat. The colder the cold side, the better it performs.

Another thing is that you might not see a lot of power output. Unless you got an actual TEG, which was made for the task, a simple Peltier element is not a good generator. Fun to experiment with but not a lot of output.

Let me know how it goes.

Re: Problem with thermoelectric generator for phone

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:06 am
by vitallica
techman wrote:Nice work but I would try more heat. A tiny candle of that size will not make much difference. Most commercial TEG modules sit on a wood stove which generates a lot of heat.

Just make sure to keep the cold side as cool as possible in order to pull off that heat. The colder the cold side, the better it performs.

Another thing is that you might not see a lot of power output. Unless you got an actual TEG, which was made for the task, a simple Peltier element is not a good generator. Fun to experiment with but not a lot of output.

Let me know how it goes.
I think my heatsink is nog big enought for this application. When the candles stays where it is, i can't touch the heatsink because it's very hot.

Re: Problem with thermoelectric generator for phone

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 9:23 am
by techman
The heat sink on the cold side gets hot? Or the hot side?

Yes you can increase the size of the hot side heat sink as well. If the cold side is hot then you need a much bigger heat sink.

But you still need more heat to generate any usable amount of energy. Most TEG systems use a wood fire to heat up the device and generator power.

Troy

Re: Problem with thermoelectric generator for phone

Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 7:51 am
by munqezf@gmail.com
Nice work
But
You are using TEC modules not TEG modules

Re: Problem with thermoelectric generator for phone

Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:26 am
by techman
TEC modules should put out some power but not as much as TEG. My thought is that the candle is not enough heat for that huge device.

Re: Problem with thermoelectric generator for phone

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2016 10:26 pm
by GaiaLight
So, did you calculate the efficiency? just curious..
btw, nice project and yes, you should use TEG instead of TEC.