Making your own solar panels for your home.

[10XTriplet]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place; move it if it is..

This seems a bit off the wall, but I did some research and would seem like its possible..

I stumbled onto this idea when I asked about peltier coolers here. You can generate power if you add cold or heat to either side, the device will generate power. Sounds a bit crazy, but there are many video's all over youtube showing how this is done. My thought is to go large scale with this. Making a 2 x 4 foot peltier heat grabber, then maybe the part two to this would cool your attic space by blowing the cold side into your vents. A guy on the web tested different paints for the best solar absorption. I found a place where I can get aluminum sheets in pretty much any size I would need. I found the largest peltier I could find, and how hot the hot side gets (source), about 158 deg F. Now, from my research it would seem the sun can get the aluminum to about 160 degrees F, which is right where I need to be.

Now I was thinking to get 545 watts, I would need to achieve 160 degrees on the hot side to produce good power output. I've done alot of research on solar panels too. The best is Sharp. 240w panels. A single Peltier kills that, if this idea can be done and alot cheaper. If I would to put a few of these in a parallel configuration I should be able to achieve alot of power @ 12v, then send this to an DC to AC converter, and there you have it... A home made solar panel...

Your thoughts?

 

[Bobnova]

The first issue is that a 200w pelt module doesn't generate 200w, it eats 200w if you feed it with the specified voltage.

I know they can be used to generate power as that is how NASA powers an awful lot of their stuff.
The thing to do I think is to buy a cheap pelt and play with it, see how much voltage and current you can get out of it.
If things look promising, continue onward.

I doubt that it will practical, but it's an interesting project and worthy of some testing.

 

[10XTriplet]

The first issue is that a 200w pelt module doesn't generate 200w, it eats 200w if you feed it with the specified voltage.

I know they can be used to generate power as that is how NASA powers an awful lot of their stuff.
The thing to do I think is to buy a cheap pelt and play with it, see how much voltage and current you can get out of it.
If things look promising, continue onward.

I doubt that it will practical, but it's an interesting project and worthy of some testing.

Check out this video. look closely and find the two TEC's sandwiched between the aluminum plates.. Simple design. I'm just modifying it..

 

[Bobnova]

They very, very, very carefully don't give you any real production numbers.
I have a pelt around here somewhere, I'll see if I can find it and play with it a bit.

 

[johan851]

It's worth pointing out that if this is more efficient than solar panels, we probably wouldn't be using solar panels much.

 

[Conumdrum]

You'll spend more on the setup than you can generate in 5 years of continuos use. The converter alone is... $$ and if you were to try to sell it back to the power company the setup would be a few thousand $$ for the hardware.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

The problem with peltiers is usually efficiency, not sure how it applies exactly to this situation though. But in using them to cool a CPU, they suck down a lot of power, and put out even more heat.

That said, if I were going to try to use them to cool my attic... I'd get a pelt and analyze if I could get enough power out of it to power a fan, and if so, I'd use that fan to actively vent my attic. That is your best bet at cooling your attic with a peltier setup in a way that is cheaper to run on an ongoing basis than plugging your fan into a power outlet. I don't know how much it costs for the pieces to get the peltiers delivering power to a fan

What definitely won't work, which I think you understand already but I wanted to clarify, is heating the hot side in order to get the cold side cold. If you want to get the cold side colder, you want to cool the hot side. You'll be warming the cold side by passing the air you want cooled over it, which will make the hot side hotter... If you also hit the hot side with sun, you'll be getting the cold side even warmer.

The part that troubles me about the first post is you are talking about generating power for your home, heating the pelt from the sun, while at the same time talking about cooling the attic with the cold side of the pelts. When thinking about your approach, you need to pick which one you want to do. Once you do that, I think you can figure out and understand what the realistic possibilities are.

 

[10XTriplet]

The problem with peltiers is usually efficiency, not sure how it applies exactly to this situation though. But in using them to cool a CPU, they suck down a lot of power, and put out even more heat.

That said, if I were going to try to use them to cool my attic... I'd get a pelt and analyze if I could get enough power out of it to power a fan, and if so, I'd use that fan to actively vent my attic. That is your best bet at cooling your attic with a peltier setup in a way that is cheaper to run on an ongoing basis than plugging your fan into a power outlet. I don't know how much it costs for the pieces to get the peltiers delivering power to a fan

What definitely won't work, which I think you understand already but I wanted to clarify, is heating the hot side in order to get the cold side cold. If you want to get the cold side colder, you want to cool the hot side. You'll be warming the cold side by passing the air you want cooled over it, which will make the hot side hotter... If you also hit the hot side with sun, you'll be getting the cold side even warmer.

The part that troubles me about the first post is you are talking about generating power for your home, heating the pelt from the sun, while at the same time talking about cooling the attic with the cold side of the pelts. When thinking about your approach, you need to pick which one you want to do. Once you do that, I think you can figure out and understand what the realistic possibilities are.

I was trying to find a use for the other side since it will be generating both hot and cold at the same time, while generating power. Solar panels can't do this. It just seems very interesting and I'm all into saving the environment. If you guys take a look at this site here, and do a little reading I believe you will also be very interested. Never thought of using pelts to generate power, always applying power to cool.. Just weird..

 

[wagex]

I was trying to find a use for the other side since it will be generating both hot and cold at the same time, while generating power. Solar panels can't do this. It just seems very interesting and I'm all into saving the environment. If you guys take a look at this site here, and do a little reading I believe you will also be very interested. Never thought of using pelts to generate power, always applying power to cool.. Just weird..

the only problem with that is you either have to apply power and have one hot and one cold side or if you are just heating the hot side then the other side will get hot as well it wont cool , you have to actively cool it, but it will generate power instead of using it, heating up the surrounding air not cooling the air down.

 

[10XTriplet]

the only problem with that is you either have to apply power and have one hot and one cold side or if you are just heating the hot side then the other side will get hot as well it wont cool , you have to actively cool it, but it will generate power instead of using it, heating up the surrounding air not cooling the air down.

I think you don't understand what's going on. No disrespect either.. I'm not trying to cool or heat anything yet, but generate power. Just take a peltier and add hot or cold to either side. it will generate a power output. Its that simple.. it took me a few reads to grasp it too...

 

[wagex]

lol oki i understand now this just threw me off

I was trying to find a use for the other side since it will be generating both hot and cold at the same time, while generating power. Solar panels can't do this.

sounds like it could be feesable to run like a small attic fan or something though

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I was trying to find a use for the other side since it will be generating both hot and cold at the same time, while generating power. Solar panels can't do this. It just seems very interesting and I'm all into saving the environment. If you guys take a look at this site here, and do a little reading I believe you will also be very interested. Never thought of using pelts to generate power, always applying power to cool.. Just weird..

The best way to figure it out is try it, and report what your results are.

The most important part of my post was that to have a cold side that is useful for cooling something, you have to power the pelt... You can't get power generation out of it, while at the same time using it as a cooling device.

 

[10XTriplet]

lol oki i understand now this just threw me off

Good! now to find someone with pelts floating around to see what it can do...

 

[Bobnova]

The generate power based on the difference in temperature between the two sides.
You need to actively cool one side and actively heat the other side to get any energy out of it.
Heating the whole thing won't get you very far, cooling the whole thing will get you nowhere.

What you'll need is a decent heatsink to cool one side and a decent heatsource to heat the other side.
If you're trying to generate meaningful amounts of electricity you're going to need meaningful amounts of cooling.
Going the other direction it's a 1:1 ratio, I expect it probably is going the other way too, if not worse.

I read the TEG site, it's.... dubious.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I read the TEG site, it's.... dubious.

I couldn't get myself past the top left corner... "almost free power".

 

[Bobnova]

It's definitely something I'm interested in looking into with my pelt module.
I don't really have any constantly-hot stuff to use it with, but it's an interesting proposition.
I just don't see multiple watts coming out of one.
Maybe the halogen desk lamp I have on any time I use the computer could generate some, don't know what I'd use the extra for though.

 

[10XTriplet]

The best way to figure it out is try it, and report what your results are.

The most important part of my post was that to have a cold side that is useful for cooling something, you have to power the pelt... You can't get power generation out of it, while at the same time using it as a cooling device.

Actually, you are wrong there... and again, no disrespect.. I know this sounds all very confusing, but you just heat one side or keep the other side cold, it will generate power where you normally give power... Let me find a video that will make it more understandable... I will edit my post when I do..

explanation

 

[10XTriplet]

It's definitely something I'm interested in looking into with my pelt module.
I don't really have any constantly-hot stuff to use it with, but it's an interesting proposition.
I just don't see multiple watts coming out of one.
Maybe the halogen desk lamp I have on any time I use the computer could generate some, don't know what I'd use the extra for though.

Hmmm... What about that HOT CPU? You may be able to power your fans via the peltier... This is getting more interesting by the minute isn't it?

Now imagine this at a much larger scale... Larger Pelts, This could be a pretty cool project...

 

[Bobnova]

No IMOG is correct, you have to cool the cold side, the pelt won't do it for you.
You need to have one side significantly hotter than the other to get power out of it.

If you put power into it, one side will get cold and the other will get hot, but of course you can't put power in and take power out

The CPU will fry, pelts don't conduct heat will enough. The CPU will overheat because the heat cannot get through the pelt to the heatsink/fan.
They don't conduct heat for beans.
The can actively pump it if you pour a lot of electricity into them, but that is a different story.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Peltiers aren't new here, you'll find more discussion of TECs/Pelts in the extreme cooling section. It's something thats fairly well covered, and several people around here have done a lot of reading and observed a lot of experience. I'm not trying to shoot your idea down, just share some experience about what is realistic and how they actually work.