[BiggKidd]

I am worn slam out got a good 6 hours working on this today! Didn’t make it as far as testing though. I did however get a lot done. First I added another 35 or so pounds of sand and started a fire. It still needs more sand! Then I put the front cover back on after reinstalling the insulation. Welded up a broken hinge on the door. Got an el-cheapo 12v charge controller installed for all the 12v working parts. It’s already hooked to a tiny 12v battery and light. Hey I have light out there now! It will also be running the fan to draw air through the stove and the water pump to pump the water / antifreeze mixture through for cooling the modules. Got the water pump in place and mixed up 3 gallons of 50/50 and have it in the 5 gallon bucket that’s acting as a reservoir. Once I get it all up and running I have to run all the straight water out and see how much it takes to fill all the lines that will tell me how many feet of PEX I put in there in 2010! Yep this has taken a minute to make happen. It just wasn’t that high on the priority list. Anyway the stove got hot faster than I got things ready to hook up. So I cut it back off at 200f. Which reminds me I still need to remove the fan and cap the chimney incase it rains and to stop it loosing heat.

I THINK I am about ready to test the module lifter plate and 2 of the modules I never was able to get specs for next time I run it. While that’s happening I will drop the wiring to run over to the battery / power building and hookup the 48 volt charge controller for the main system.

TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY!

[BiggKidd]

This is nutty as heck. Yesterday I cut the stove off fairly early at 200f because I wasn’t ready for the next step. I just went out to start hooking up the pump and stuff to test the lifter plate and 2 of the modules. What I managed to so was burn myself, no worries nothing at all bad just highly unexpected, call it more of an attention getter. Anyway the stove is up a little over 250f here some 20 odd hours later. I’m guessing the hotter heat from the firebox now under the stove was slowly absorbed in the mass of the stove. I expect having all it’s insulation back on / in place made some difference too. Now I’m a bit curious how long it will take to get back down around 100f? I could go and remove the insulation off the top but that would likely only affect the top surface temperature. Oh well plenty of other things I need to be doing anyway…

[MartHale7]

Storing energy is what I have been looking at lately…. Been looking at storing it chemically. I ordered some quicklime to test out the heat released out of it verses the process of charging it back up….

Thanks for sharing your progress.

[BiggKidd]

Interesting make sure to post results.

[BiggKidd]

Got several more hours working on this project today. Got some more of the plumbing done. Made a couple scrap wood shelves since there is no room to sit anything at all in such a tiny space. Also got a weather wall built on the backside of the unit itself to keep water & wind out. Still want to build one on the other side. So thankful for my scrap piles and all their useful junk! Found an old 4 or 5 hinged panel garage door amongst my scrap so even the west side may get closed in with that. Of course it’ll have to become a braced one movement door, hinging either up or down as a single section. Also put a movable step in front of the firebox since after digging it down I’m not tall enough to work inside the top (module) area.

Only a little more to do until I am actually ready for testing. A little wiring and a little more plumbing. I may go back out later and work on it more if I don’t crash first…

[BiggKidd]

Out of curiosity I blew all the water out of the floor pipe and measured the amount. Looks like my estimated 2-300 feet was off a fair amount. Either that or there was an air pocket somewhere. But I have one more chance to check it when I refill it with with the water antifreeze mixture. According to the numbers I have so far the floor has 150 feet of 1/2 PEX pipe. Which is actually still a little much for a floor that size. According to the info I have found on radiant floor heat you want 1 linear foot of pipe for every square foot of floor. This floor is 120 square feet… My pump is also a bit fast at 2gpm the flooring info says you want .6gpm. Haven’t been able to find ANY info on what kind of flow rate the module plates want which is why I am going by the floor radiant heat numbers………..

[BiggKidd]

Testing has begun, sort of. LoL Not sure how long I’ll last. The one plate with the two test modules is plumbed and wired and the stove is burning!

BTW I’m already beat so testing will likely be cut short tonight unless my second wind kicks in.

[BiggKidd]

Stove top is up close to 100f so I cut the pump on. It’s making a whopping 0.95 volts. lol Anyone want to guess how many volts and amps 2 modules wired in series will provide at working temperature? Target temperature is 250f on the hot side and 60-80f on the cold side.

[BiggKidd]

First real round of testing two modules blew my expectations clean outa the water. 6.7 volts and 1.75 amps at 300f. Now that’s just two modules there will be 36 to 40 wired in series per square foot if things go according to plan. That should be better than 100 watts per square foot anytime the stove is up to temp!

[BiggKidd]

Oh thank the Lord my batteries are here. Between these and my new Mass TEG I’ll be in high cotton!

Bonus good news I just found the GFCI tripped on the 2000W inverter I thought was toast when I went to unhook it. It’s fine! I had no idea the hardwired circuit also went through the GFCI for the plugs!

My tires are also ready to be picked up, which will have to wait for morning as I have lots to do!

[BiggKidd]

Well that wore my tail out but I got 36 modules mounted on the aluminum plate with the coolers and got all the series connections soldered together. I absolutly suck at soldering. I was never any good at it even before MS got me but now I surely qualify as TERRIBLE! It’s done. It’s amazing how such simple lite work can kick my butt! I’d much rather dig a ditch by hand in August than repeat that process…

Still have to sand / grind the steel plate down more and then run the wiring and hook up the charge controller before I can actually try it out. Not sure when that’s going to happen I have some other chores that require my attention ASAP like changing the tractor tire and patching the tube on one of the Deuce tires so I can go buy hay before my cows run out. Also need to cut & split wood first. Ugh it’s always like this ten things before you actually complete what you’re trying to do!

[BiggKidd]

1:30 am it’s hooked up and running. I put the steel plate and it on at the same time so as not to thermal shock it. That plate is being SLOW to warm up it was just barely over 100f when I came inside. Both coolers are downright cold to the touch. Had to go back and loosen all the hold down bolts as they were warping the 1/4 inch thick aluminum plate and it wasn’t sitting flat.

I’m starting to wonder if the TEG is removing temperature so fast the steel can’t absorb the heat as fast as the TEG is removing it. The gravel on the top was about 350f when I put it all together and started it running.

[BiggKidd]

I don’t expect it to do a hundred watts maybe 50-60 at most. But if you add that up it adds up. lol Say I make 50 watts an hour which is my goal times 24 hours that’s 1,200 watt hours or 1.2 kwh a day. That’s about 1/4 of our daily winter time power use. Better yet it runs when the sun don’t shine. lol