Post by on Jul 24, 2023 12:08:32 GMT
Did anyone ever actually play with these at any stage? I remember there was a discussion some time ago and it was pointed out that they are incredibly inefficient but as I have endless supply of firewood and a very hot little fire it occurred to me that using a water cooled setup might actually work. It would be direct heat dump to the River.
What I'd do is have a barrel on the cabin top which is filled with river water either by bucket or a small pump, drop the water through a suitable pipe across the thermoelectric module then discharge via a skin fitting. all done by gravity with a valve for flow control. This would keep the temperature difference going and warm the River so I can then have a small fishery.
I know its only about 5% efficient but if one does have a lot of wood and no need for domestic hot water it seems reasonably interesting as an experiment.
Quick google shows 4kWh of energy per kilo of wood. If a quarter of that is exiting the stove from the back then it would be 1kWh (if the stove chucks out 4kW) so 5 percent would be 50 watts which would be 3.3 amps into my 15v batteries.
I know it isn't that simple and it would be an inefficient way to use energy from wood but it could be a valid way of getting a little bit of power in the middle of winter. I don't use a genny or engine so the only other supplier is the solar which obviously doesn't do all that much.
It seems that to generate lets say 30Ah would be 10 hours of fire 'wasting' 250g per hour of wood for the TEG. So 2.5kg of wood per day. This doesn't seem a lot.
There are probably flaws in the calculations but it did get me wondering.
What I'd do is have a barrel on the cabin top which is filled with river water either by bucket or a small pump, drop the water through a suitable pipe across the thermoelectric module then discharge via a skin fitting. all done by gravity with a valve for flow control. This would keep the temperature difference going and warm the River so I can then have a small fishery.
I know its only about 5% efficient but if one does have a lot of wood and no need for domestic hot water it seems reasonably interesting as an experiment.
Quick google shows 4kWh of energy per kilo of wood. If a quarter of that is exiting the stove from the back then it would be 1kWh (if the stove chucks out 4kW) so 5 percent would be 50 watts which would be 3.3 amps into my 15v batteries.
I know it isn't that simple and it would be an inefficient way to use energy from wood but it could be a valid way of getting a little bit of power in the middle of winter. I don't use a genny or engine so the only other supplier is the solar which obviously doesn't do all that much.
It seems that to generate lets say 30Ah would be 10 hours of fire 'wasting' 250g per hour of wood for the TEG. So 2.5kg of wood per day. This doesn't seem a lot.
There are probably flaws in the calculations but it did get me wondering.
