Hi-Z Seebeck devices arrived today...

[DamonHD]

I probably won't finish the RE system rewiring until Wednesday (I do have RE power and lighting in my new office, but not the laptop/server or WiFi or SDSL modem) because I have to empty and move three book cases and make a big hole in a wall...

The Seebeck stuff will have to wait until at least next week I suspect.  The devices themselves are smaller than I imagined, but the air and water-cooled heatsinks larger than I imagined.  I also bought a power supply which can directly charge a 12V battery given the Seebeck ~1.5V output, so I may eventually be running my Internet server from my hot-water tank overnight in summer!

Rgds

Damon

[WXYZCIENCE]

Rgds, How many of the Hi-z devices are you going to use? What kind of dollars per watt are you talking? Temperature they run at?
Joseph

[DamonHD]

2 of the HZ-14.

Don't ask me the $/W for this setup, but it would make NASA and the Pentagon look parsimonious!

If my initial fiddling works properly, then I'll start thinking about $/W (£/W in coloured money)!

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

Actually, I did finish more of the rewiring today than I expected, including pulling 20m of phone and modem cables halfway round the house, literally, with some risk of injury from all the bookcases I was lugging around, etc.  Luckily my SO is prepared to overlook the mess (and cables running down her side of the bed) at least for now!

On Wednesday I'll be able to finish!  Hurrah!

Then I can take some pics of the Seebeck stuff and start trying to puzzle how to put it together for my fiddling...  Expect a few dumb questions, y'all.

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

Rewiring completed I think.

I expect to find out soon if the opto-isolator sensor now 10m of alarm signal wire away from the USB digital I/O board works as it used to when 10cm away...  It really should, being essentially a couple of milliamps at most of DC with a few volts of voltage drop available.

I have still to tidy up some cables with trunking and clips, etc, but that's all cosmetic.

I have one spare pair of signal wires and one spare pair of power wires available routed from office down to the batteries, to give me some elbow room for the future.

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

I did my first very pathetic test just now: wedged one of the generators under the hot bit of my laptop and (separately!) between my just-boiled electric kettle and my cooling cup of tea.

I did manage to get my multimeter to twitch with what I take to be a few mW of generated power!  I'll try and take some pictures of the stuff today, and I may need some advice from y'all grown-ups out there as to the most sensible way to approach testing and prototyping this idea of mine!  I'm fairly sure that I have enough bits to be getting on with (especially after I get back to my local DIY store): now I have to Just Do It!

What (Watt?) fun though: waste heat to actual electricity!

And I used the hot water from my kettle, partially powered by my solar PV, to make another cup of brain-rousing tea.  No Joule was wasted during this test.

(I am not disclosing if any subatomic particles were discommoded.)

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

OK first pics should appear here in about an hour or so:

http://gallery.hd.org/electronics/seebeck/

Rgds

Damon