Forget About Cast Iron VS Soapstone. Some Day You'll Plug Into Your Stove.

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btuser

btuser

Minister of Fire
Jan 15, 2009
2,069
Principality of Pontinha
Smoke and mirrors? Maybe so, but wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to plug in your pellet stove? Depending on the temps needed you could even put it on your roof.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-29/alphabet-energy-s-semiconductors-turn-smoke-into-juice.html

Hard to believe there is such a thing as waste heat, and that companies pay big bucks to get rid of unwanted BTUs. The EPA is pushing Public Service of NH into spending another 23 million dollars to mitigage waste heat returned to the Merrimac river. Why not heat a greenhouse? They're dumping money for crying out loud.
 
It will be interesting to see what kind of efficiencies he can get. I could see putting these on the backs of solar panels in warm regions, especially if they act as a heat sink. If it added 10-20% efficiency at a reasonable cost, it could be a good use.
 
Some advances in TEGs (thermo-electric generators) would be nice to see.

Supposedly MIT had made a big breakthrough a couple years back, but I haven't heard if it panned out.

Present state of the art is about 4% of the heat thay are exposed to is converted to electricity.
 
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