fblevins1
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2021
- Messages
- 171
So, having already run through here and posted and learned about how to set up my own little solar panel power generation station and now it sits just doing its thing without any assistance from me other than to occasionally shine my flashlight into the corner monitor what it is doing, I now turn my attention to thermoelectric power generation. My son bought me a box of TEG's, and I have some high temp thermal paste/glue on the way and I rounded up a few different types of passive heat sinks and will soon start generating unregulated power, measuring the voltage, maybe even use a small 60 watt electronic load on the output to get an idea about how much power a one or more TEG's can output. So the question is, while I have found a source or two that specializes in TEG output regulation, many of them the products are out of stock...not good. So, I wonder if a solar charge controller could step in and do the job I need? The maximum output of my TEG's are 14.4 volts at up to 6 Amps. So assuming that I can create a sufficient delta temperature (difference in the hot and cold side) in the temperature range they operate, why wouldn't a solar charge controller work? I realize that TEG's are not the most efficient way to generate power, my idea is to capture as much energy as possible and if you have heat being generated anyway, why not harvest the energy from that, while the heat source is doing its heat thing? I have seen charge controllers that have both wind and solar inputs but I can't recall if I have seen them with thermal inputs. Figured I would shake your brains and see what falls out. You guys/gals were beyond helpful in getting my set up going.