Peltier Generating More Watts Than A Solar Panel

[sm0ky2]

The square white ceramic units are designed as an electric heat pump
yes - they Can be used for power generation, however:


(I'll try to transcribe the Chinese websites poor English)
The more power you generate with an array of units,
The greater the cooling requirements
Which uses more of the power you generated (depending on your use)
This curve will cap your output to 0 if not careful.


I would suggest using a Seebeck generator designed for power production.
Such devices find most usage in the shipping industry, for use on bigrig trucks
The ring-shaped units are fitted to the exhaust pipe
And cooled naturally by the wind while driving.
They come in 5kW, 10kW, +
And are rather expensive, but can be obtained from truck junkyards
Hot fluid or gas can be piped through them, to generate power from waste heat.


Using this for solar power may be tricky because of the shape.
But it may be possible to heat a cylinder with a solar concentrator
and in a shade with a light breeze on the outer part of the ring


There are similar (white square) units that LOOK exactly like the "cpu coolers"
But are actually seebecks not peltiers, there are internal differences
And great differences in performance as a generator.
The problem is most manufacturers sell the same peltiers as generators
AND cpu coolers and don't tell us that they are the same Peltier device.


Main difference that becomes noticeable with use is as follows:
(this applies to the identical looking white square ceramic units)


The Peltier produces less power for temperature difference, and more heat is passed
through to the cold side (requires more cooling to sustain power production)


The Seebeck produces more power for temperature difference, and less heat is
passed through to the cold side (over a set time) and requires less cooling to sustain.


With the current industry standards, disclosure is not a requirement of the manufacturer.
So data sheets, data sheets, data sheets!!
Compare the performance of the products before you buy them!
This is the best way to know what you are actually buying

[sm0ky2]

The data sheets will also show you the electrically driven state data


In many cases, if this data is missing, you are probably looking at a Seebeck


Some include the data for both, so by comparison you can determine which one it is
Seebeck will require more electrical power to create the same temperature difference
as the Peltier.
Peltiers work better as a cooler, Seebeck work better as a generator
But both will 'do both'
So the manufacturers often only produce one type of unit (Peltier CPU cooler)
and sell it as both products.

[sm0ky2]

The internal differences are a matter of the connections of the
individual junctions as well as materials used.

[sm0ky2]

a few years back I happened upon a DOW chemical test of a very low temp Phase change fluid [80F]

Solid -> liquid:   Gallium and Cesium
Cyclohexanol
Cresol (88F)
Capric Acid (88F)




Liquid -> gas:


Acetaldehyde 69F
Hydroflouric Acid 66F
Trichlorofloromethane (R1) 75F <- reacts with O3

[abbhawk]

I just stepped over another peltier module that has a improved performance.

https://wholesaler.alibaba.com/product-detail/TEC1-12712-12V-12A-145W-40_60135673932.html?spm=a2700.details.maylikehoz.3.75881e11zPdAST

145watt at 16 cm2 thats like 9watt per cm2 or 9000watt/hour per m2

Each module cost 6,90dollar so a m2 cost around 430dollar

I took a look at these Seebeck modules but they seem to run on high temp and they are very expensive, so i think i like these normal peltier modules better, because they can run on solar. But of course im no expert so i need to listen to what you guys say.

Any chance anyone like to test it for us?