Thanks for the notice. I'm interested, even though I get the impression it is likely to be a sales pitch as much as an educational seminar. However, I will be busy all of that day.
I'd like to tinker with using TEG's solely to run a small blower when the power is out, as our flush insert does not perform well without a blower. 50 Watts should be fine, and if I can get 4% efficiency, that's 4300 BTU/hour. That seems like a reasonable fraction of the heat from stove running in the 20-30,000 BTU/hour range.
I've got a couple really cheap units to play with, but haven't had time to start experimenting or do any heat transfer calculations.
One of the problems I'm expecting to encounter, aside from finding or learning how to create a power controller to deal with the variable voltage and current output, is high temperature TEG's seem to be extremely expensive, and conventional TEG's temperature ratings suggest they have to be insulated somewhat from normal stove-top temperatures. I've seen some affordable ($3/Watt) modules rated for a little over 600 degrees F, but that seems marginal at best
The host of this seminar seems to want $2600 for an 1100 degree rated, 23 Watt unit. His lower temperature modules have pricing in line with what I've seen elsewhere though.
Kool. Do they have lifetime specs...as in run hours on the junction?
I've not found any life rating data, but...
The Voyager 2 spacecraft is currently within a few months of hitting 4 decades of continuous operation of its thermoelectric generators. Their current electrical production is about 54% of what they were at launch. Their plutonium heat sources should be producing about 73% of their heat output at the time of launch, so that means the thermocouples are working at a little under 75% of their original performance level. That's in the same ballpark as expectations for solar panels.
https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/spacecraftlife.html
However, the Voyagers experience effectively no thermal cycling, and I don't know if they use the same type of junction as the TEG's available at prices a household product might justify.
The Carnot cycle efficiency seems to govern both TEGs and Sterling cycle and it isn't great for a woodstove.
TEG performance is no danger of running into the Carnot efficiency limit in the near future. None of the Sterling's I've seen data on are very close either, but they're usually a ways ahead of TEG's.
