[OpenTRV-dev] Thermoelectric power for TRVs?

[Thomas Hood]

On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 11:27 AM, Damon Hart-Davis <EMAIL ADDRESS HIDDEN> wrote:
> My feeling is, that if there is a big enough gradient to extract
> energy from then we're doing the heating wrong.

You can generate electricity from the difference between body
temperature and ambient temperature. Not much, but still. :)

/me gets out an envelope and does some calcs.  My furnace supplies
water at 75°C (factory default setting). Micropelt's datasheet for the
TE-CORE/RF includes a table of "output power and battery equivalent".
At a continuous 𝜟T of 35°C the board produces annually as much energy
as 6 AA batteries.

Now, given that a radiator valve isn't always fully open (especially
during the summer) this is clearly not enough power. And since a
particular radiator could be cold all the time, this power source
can't possibly suffice on its own. But it's significant enough to be
interesting. The power output scales with the area of the thermal
generator element and the element in the TE-CORE/RF is only 1,5cm².

Anyway, the idea is just that this is a technology of possible
significance for the project.
-- 
Thomas