High-power thermoelectric generator utilises thermal difference of only 5°C

Re:High-power thermoelectric generator utilises thermal diff... by VBprogrammer on Monday July 09, 2018 @09:14AM (#17489927)

Yeah, checking wikipedia the efficiency of TEGs are ~5-8% so I guess that is why this idea isn't used. It would be hard to justify the cost / weight at that limit.

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Re:High-power thermoelectric generator utilises thermal diff... by dsfyu404ed on Monday July 09, 2018 @09:53AM (#17490133)

There's got to be more to it than that. I would suspect that energy recovered over the service life isn't enough to more than break even.

If up front cost and/or weight/packaging were the issue you'd see them employed at least occasionally in marine/rail/off highway/stationary industrial applications where physical trade-offs aren't as big of an issue and the up front cost is can be more easily amortized over the long service life of the equipment it's tacked on to.

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Re:High-power thermoelectric generator utilises thermal diff... by lostlogin on Monday July 09, 2018 @09:34AM (#17490008)

Many applications don’t have a weight limit, things like generators powering remote living locations.

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