Making your own solar panels for your home.

[10XTriplet]

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.

Ok, I see your dilemma. Did you watch the video? Still no power added on either side. But when you do add power one side gets cold the other hot, but if you apply hot to the cold side, and put a heat sink on the other, it generates power.. So you would put large heat sink on the cold side and an aluminum plate on the other coated with flat black paint... put it in the sun and see what it can do.. simple as that..

here is another video

 

[Bobnova]

Yup I watched the video. That's using it in generator mode.
One side actively heated, one side actively cooled, power is generated.

You can either generate power or make it actively pump heat.

The plate+heatsink bit would generate power, absolutely.
How much? I don't know, that's why I want to test and want you to test!

You can't make it generate power and pump heat.

The Pelt-Runs-A-Fan routine is pretty well established, there are a number of self contained (sort of) fans like that to put on top of wood stoves to circulate the heat. They're pretty cool.

 

[10XTriplet]

Yup I watched the video. That's using it in generator mode.
One side actively heated, one side actively cooled, power is generated.

You can either generate power or make it actively pump heat.

The plate+heatsink bit would generate power, absolutely.
How much? I don't know, that's why I want to test and want you to test!

You can't make it generate power and pump heat.

The Pelt-Runs-A-Fan routine is pretty well established, there are a number of self contained (sort of) fans like that to put on top of wood stoves to circulate the heat. They're pretty cool.

AWESOME! You understand! I plan on testing this too, but before I spent money on a wacky idea, I wanted to pass the idea around here and see if its a possible solution. I plan on making one with a cold pump, that warms up the coolant (same for the car) that will keep the cold side cool, but not frozen, so it never stops generating power. Cool. I will start making plans..

 

[Bobnova]

Fair warning:
They consume significantly more power than they move heat. If you're planning to use a pelt to cool the pelt you'll be using a lot more energy than you're generating.

 

[10XTriplet]

Fair warning:
They consume significantly more power than they move heat. If you're planning to use a pelt to cool the pelt you'll be using a lot more energy than you're generating.

No, that would be silly, but thanks for the heads up...

My build will be very similar to this design...

 

[Pinky]

I think using some type of geothermal cooling and solar heating with a pelt in the middle would work. Bury some copper in the ground, connect a water block (attached to cold side of pelt) in-line, slap in a low wattage/low flow pump (to run off the pelt) for circulating the water, fill system with anti-freeze, and you just might generate enough electricity to power the pump.

If you add up the cost for the piping, pump, antifreeze, heatsink, and solar capturing aparatus you might be able to pay for itself in a couple thousand years of operation.

 

[Pinky]

I still think when you add up the costs, http://www.solarvoltaic.com/ is the best bet. Combined with Wind and batteries (for cloudy days) many people are already completely off the grid, and reselling their excess generated power to the rest of us. And as time goes on, wind and solar technology (and batteries) will continue to advance much like it has in recent years, to the point that cost and installation size won't be as large of an issue.

 

[10XTriplet]

I still think when you add up the costs, http://www.solarvoltaic.com/ is the best bet. Combined with Wind and batteries (for cloudy days) many people are already completely off the grid, and reselling their excess generated power to the rest of us. And as time goes on, wind and solar technology (and batteries) will continue to advance much like it has in recent years, to the point that cost and installation size won't be as large of an issue.

I was thrown back a bit when I saw this peltier power idea.. I just wanted to share, Thanks for reading and contributing.

Check out this find...

http://www.buy.com/prod/low-carbon-...ool-garden/222074275.html?listingId=145191088

 

[Pinky]

For $22 shipped that's snazzy. Tempted to get one for the bird bath (if you keep the water circulating mosquitos won't lay eggs in it, otherwise we have to keep it drained most of the time).

 

[Bobnova]

Two things about those videos:

1) He's trying to sell you something.
2) There is no electrical load other than the 1,000,000 ohm resistor in the multimeter. Expect that voltage to plummet with an actual load on there.