DIY Peltier Candle Powered Electric Generator

Here I show how to create some usable electricity from a candle and a peltier cooler.

Materials include a candle, metal plate, four nuts, four long bolts, a peltier cooler, heat sink, and thermal grease.

The heat sink was raided out of a Pentium four computer. The peltier cooler was purchased on ebay for about $8.00.

Peltier coolers are made to produce either heat or cooling for small devices like small portable beverage coolers and coffee warmers. Put a current through a peltier cooler and one side will head while the other side will cool. The neat thing is if you heat one side and cool the other peltier coolers will generate electricity. Unfortunately they are not all that efficient but cool to experiment and play with.

I have read where a company somewhere is working on a much more efficient peltier cooler, if they succeed then peltiers may become more useful for generating electricity.

The heat sink was raided out of a Pentium four computer. The peltier cooler was purchased on ebay for about $8.00.

Peltier coolers are made to produce either heat or cooling for small devices like small portable beverage coolers and coffee warmers. Put a current through a peltier cooler and one side will head while the other side will cool. The neat thing is if you heat one side and cool the other peltier coolers will generate electricity. Unfortunately they are not all that efficient but cool to experiment and play with.

I have read where a company somewhere is working on a much more efficient peltier cooler, if they succeed then peltiers may become more useful for generating electricity.