41–50 of 163 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No you can't make a perpetual motion machine with it ;)
But could you produce a cooling system that this could power? Or at least recycle some of the heat fridge/freezers produce back into electricity.
This was already possible. Now you could just do it more efficiently.
Would this be efficient in a mobile phone?
What does the level of performance indicated here likely mean in terms of the efficiency of, say, a thermal energy plant of some description? How far is the needle shifted for an end user?
From mucking about with the device efficiency formula from wiki ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_materials#Therm... ), and a change of zT from 2.5 to 5, we see a maximal possible efficiency increase of 38% (when T_c == T_h). Wiki also tells me that the best TEG modules currently lock in around 8%, so we're looking at like 10-11% at best with the new material. So from a bulk scale electricity standpoint.…
What does the level of performance indicated here likely mean in terms of the efficiency of, say, a thermal energy plant of some description? How far is the needle shifted for an end user?
From mucking about with the device efficiency formula from wiki ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_materials#Therm... ), and a change of zT from 2.5 to 5, we see a maximal possible efficiency increase of 38% (when T_c == T_h). Wiki also tells me that the best TEG modules currently lock in around 8%, so we're looking at like 10-11% at best with the new material. So from a bulk scale electricity standpoint.…
This would be an even bigger deal for remote spacecraft that rely on the heat from on-board nuclear reactors.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Peltier and Seebeck effects are so grossly inefficient that even an order of magnitude increase in efficiency doesn’t bring it into reason for basically any purpose. I’m not actually aware of any device ever made that uses the seebeck effect in any substantial way other than the little heat powered fans people put on wood stoves. The peltier effect is just down right awesome, you put power in and now it’s cold!?…
My camp cooler is powered by a 60W peltier. Plugs in to any automotive cigarette lighter. It will keep things refrigerator cold for as long as you want, and it's almost completely silent in operation. There's tons of different models on the market. FWIW.
that's more a function of the insulation , rather than the cooling ability. The wattage needed for 'thermal maintenance' is far lower than needed for actually removing heat from the system.
Peltiers' are kind of on the same scale of efficiency as using your car (on purpose) to cook food in the engine bay.
This would be an even bigger deal for remote spacecraft that rely on the heat from on-board nuclear reactors.
Unlikely. Much easier to just connect the sensor to the main power supply via a wire.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_ge...
Would this be efficient in a mobile phone?
This will be slowly but surely be used everywhere. Reducing heat output while providing electricity is almost always a win-win situation.