TEG/Thermoelectric Power Harvesting

[jpanhalt]

Coiled radiators used to be common. When coiling the tubing, fill it with sand so the sides don't collapse -- unless you have a purpose made coiler. One advantage of multiple parallel tubes is probably greater flow rate.

John

 

[Overclocked]

That would be an interesting idea, but I would need 2 pumps running at once. I could do passive tech, just have the coil sitting in a bath of ice water.

Coiled radiators used to be common. When coiling the tubing, fill it with sand so the sides don't collapse -- unless you have a purpose made coiler.

John

I know enough that I have to anneal copper if I bend it, Ive had some practice when attempting to make a flash tube boiler.

 

[jpanhalt]

Some copper comes pre-annealed. I believe that condition is typical for "refrigeration" copper. However, my comment applied to almost any metal, including aluminum and SS. When we coiled glass, we had to rely on adjustable internal air pressure and heat, but that was a slow process.

John

 

[tcmtech]

You could just get a cheap automotive heater core or a air conditioner evaporator core and use those as your radiator.

No point in spending hours fabricating something that is already mass produced and cheap.

 

[Overclocked]

The problem there would be flow. Car heater cores use 5/8'' or greater connections. It wouldnt be a problem making one, but the tubes are so big that flow might be a problem since I am using 1/4'' line.

 

[Joe G]

if you go from .25" into .625" the flow's speed will slow down giving it more time in the "exchanger", that is what you need to cool or heat more efficiently

 

[tcmtech]

If your line sizes are large enough and are laid out properly you can get natural thermally induced convection to do the pumping work for you.

 

[Overclocked]

if you go from .25" into .625" the flow's speed will slow down giving it more time in the "exchanger", that is what you need to cool or heat more efficiently

Never thought of it that way. How I could arrange the whole sequence would be to put the pump after the reservoir, then followed by the cooling block, and then the radiator which would feed back into the reservoir. Assuming theres enough water in the reservoir, flow wouldn't be that much of a problem (in theory).

ADD: I actually have a small radiator from a watercooling kit I was given. I'll have to make an adapter for it though.

ADD2: I just tried it out with my small pump, no waterblock. It seems to keep the water level in the reservoir constant, which is good. It seems that there needs to be a small amount of water in the rad before any actually flows out, which Im assuming is good. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to do stuff .