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  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 11, 2023 at 5:52 pm in reply to: Thermoelectric power

    Getting lined up to run a simple test to see which of these three modules make the most power at the same relative temperatures. This test is between a TEC1-12706 a SP1848-27145 and a Kyocera #12016896A. Anybody got odds on which one will perform the best?

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 10:41 pm in reply to: Thermoelectric power

    Yet another shift in plans. Now I’m glad I had to wait on parts. lol Going to go ahead and finish routing heat through a couple rooms from the woodstove but now I’m NOT going to put the modules on that stove in the house. I came up with a safer way to do it without chancing burning the modules out by overheating them. Also going to kill two birds with one stone if things workout like they should. Going to require a couple days fabricating things BUT this will work out MUCH better in the long run! Plus it will put some heat and power in one of the out buildings.

    Oh and for those who like repurposing things this entire project NOT counting the electrical parts is coming from my junk piles!

    Did you know 200 gallons of water heated to 190f with a mean temperature of 70f holds around 60kwh of energy. If I can remove just 10% of that for electrical power I will call that a HUGE win!

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 8, 2023 at 4:04 pm in reply to: Thermoelectric power

    Hopefully the rest of my project parts will arrive this week. I think I just about have a solution to the heating / overheating of the modules but I need to run a bunch of tests and to do that I need the parts I’m still waiting on.

    All this fooling with heat and power made me dust off some older ideas I had for a horizontal burn rocket mass heater. I got that all worked out on paper last night. Who knows if I’ll actually build it. But just to let y’all in on the details this would be a relatively small footprint for a mass type heater being 12 to 18 inches wide and 52 inches long and tall. Which I know doesn’t sound small at all but believe me for a mass type heater it’s practically tiny!

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 7, 2023 at 3:23 pm in reply to: Thermoelectric power

    Got the old fan modified to be powered via hot water last night. I put a 40x40mm water cooling block over a thin piece of insulation foam on top of the fans base piece then put a TEC1-12706 with thermal paste on both sides on top of the block and used longer screws to mount the fans top half back over it. The hot water will go through the fan first then go through the radiator. Hopefully that will allow the fan to come on anytime it has hot water going through the system. The fan will be positioned to blow air through the radiator cooling it while heating the room.

    The TEC1-12706 is also a lower temperature module then the one that came on the fan so it should work better with the fan now being in a much colder area.

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 6, 2023 at 10:47 pm in reply to: Thermoelectric power

    The new stove fan came in today I got another one from Amazon but this one oscillates and the fan blade appears to turn a lot faster than the other one. Curiosity made look to see if had a larger power module and it does. I am robbing the other one to put on the radiator going in my daughters room.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09KN2QXJH?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

    I think these things are to cool producing their own power from heat! Seeing as a larger module makes them turn faster and since I have a couple spare 40x40mm modules for my project the old one may get a larger module before I mount it upstairs.

    I think the last of the parts will be here this week to get this project moving.

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 6, 2023 at 2:43 pm in reply to: Rotationally grazing livestock near Western North Carolina

    I’m in Lunenburg VA just 30 or so miles north of the NC state line. This is a good topic and idea.

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 6, 2023 at 6:18 am in reply to: Thermoelectric power

    Ended up getting the stove a little hotter than I meant to tonight but it gave me some good test numbers. Stove top got nearly to 200c the 1 inch thick steel got to 110c. The stove is headed back down it’s at 165c now but the steel is still holding better at 107c. Looks like the steel plate is doing exactly what I need it to do. But that doesn’t mean that’s the route I’m going to go. I have another idea or three to try, that was just the first shot in the dark.

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 6, 2023 at 3:35 am in reply to: Thermoelectric power

    Alright the IR temp gun came in and testing of the stove’s heat output has begun. Problem is it’s not cold enough to burn it very hard. I have a pretty good base line for now but I need to test it when it’s rolling and that would run us out of the house right now. lol It’s 39 out and 73 f in and the stove top is 84c and the steel plate is 60c. The steel plate seems to change temperature much slower and seems to stay about 20-25c cooler than the stove top. Which is what I was hoping for but I still have to see where the top end temperatures get before I know which way to go setting up.

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 3, 2023 at 8:10 pm in reply to: Thermoelectric power

    I have almost everything to make this work EXCEPT the temp gun and new soldering iron I ordered. Amazon first said 2 days I ordered on 12/22/22 it’s now 1/3/23 and the stuff still hasn’t even shipped. Now it looks like I’ll be lucky to get them by the middle of the month. WTH?

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 3, 2023 at 8:06 pm in reply to: Beautiful fire 🔥

    I can see several things first a goblin face with a large nose and ears. Second a shirtless man upside down. Third a reflection of Bee and if I were to stare at it for a while I could probably see ten more. Gotta love a scattered mind!

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 1, 2023 at 5:17 pm in reply to: Buying Land

    If you can tell us more of what you plan to do we can give better answers. IE: if you want to grow crops then you need good southern exposure in our northern hemisphere. Water is a big point as well having access to water on YOUR land is hard to beat whether it’s a spring, creek or river and does the area have good aquifers in other words can a well be put in?

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 1, 2023 at 2:51 pm in reply to: Buying Land

    I’ve never seen a book on that subject but there are several key elements to look for and those can change depending on your intended use of the land.

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 6, 2023 at 5:15 pm in reply to: Rotationally grazing livestock near Western North Carolina

    Yeah this guy was / is a real pro at it. He raises near a hundred head IIRC and has been for a long time. He calls himself a grass farmer. You might try looking on Homesteading today I think that’s where I knew him from.

    ETA: I don’t think that’s his forum name though.

    • This reply was modified 1 year, 10 months ago by  BiggKidd.
  • BiggKidd

    Member
    January 6, 2023 at 3:21 pm in reply to: Rotationally grazing livestock near Western North Carolina

    I do have livestock but that’s a lot farther than I try to drive these days. I get bad headaches sitting in a vehicle for more than 30-45 minutes at a time. There was a guy I use to talk to down that way who specializes in year round grazing (stockpiling) if I can remember his name or where I knew him from I will let you know.

  • BiggKidd

    Member
    December 31, 2022 at 2:47 pm in reply to: What pig?

    They are a small breed that rarely gets over 250lbs. They are very hardy animals who if left to their own devices will mostly feed themselves off the land. The meat is excellent. They grow real slow you’re looking at two years to harvest size minimum. The yare easy going and not aggressive like commercial hogs. Downside if you over feed them you end up with tons of lard and not a lot of meat.

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