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Post by getitone on Jan 8, 2018 5:58:02 GMT -8
Hi, I'm pretty new to all of this but I would like to know what you do to improve energy efficiency? I own an electrical stove and have heard of a Seebeck generator not too long ago. Have you ever used anything like that? If so, what are your experiences? |
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Post by coastalrocketeer on Jan 8, 2018 6:23:50 GMT -8
Hi, I'm pretty new to all of this but I would like to know what you do to improve energy efficiency? I own an electrical stove and have heard of a Seebeck generator not too long ago. Have you ever used anything like that? If so, what are your experiences? Generally electric heaters are 99+% efficient at turning delivered electrical current into heat. Whether they are efficient at getting that heat to our bodies is a highly debatable subject. A Seebeck generator is apparently a thermal electric generator, which would turn a temperature differential into an electrical potential. Generally what I have seen of this technology would be suitable to run a small computer fan, or a single 3 to 6 watt LED bulb via a device that costs $50 to $150 and requires a suitable source of temperature differential such as a wood stove or concentrated solar thermal energy. Both of these heat sources would obviate the need for an electric heater if correctly utilized and provide direct heating much more efficiently than a thermal electric generator powered electric heater run from them, possibly could. Running a say, 1500 watt, electric heater on thermal electric generators would be prohibitively expensive for the necessary TEG capacity, and would require more heat input from your stove or solar or other heat source than it could produce, due to conversion inefficiency and their inherent low power output, once again leaving you better off using the original heat source directly. A TEG can have it's place where running low power devices from an existing heat source off-grid, is desired, but running an electric heater of any appreciable wattage is not one of them, in my opinion of the current technology as I understand it. Barring massive increases in efficiency for this tech in the future, I see no suitable applications where running a electric heating device from another heat source makes sense, in the real world. |
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