I have one of those stove top fans for wood burning fires that, when heated up, spread the warm air around a room.
They're not very effective, but I'm intrigued by the technology whereby a heat difference creates a current to drive the fan.
You can't see the fan blades in the photo above, as they're whirling like the proverbial Dervish.
The gubbins of the fan is a Peltier device, which creates thermoelectric energy through the Seebeck effect.
Theoretically, the fan should work in reverse when the bottom section is cooled and the upper section is in hot air, but given the length of the shank, the sucking out of the heat by the cool surface below wouldn't be very efficient. Placing the base on a block of ice, for example, wouldn't produce a high temperature differential at the Peltier device at the top of the stand.
Any ideas from anyone as to how I could conduct an experiment, without dismantling the thing?
2 comments:
I have two, painted the blade tips white. Block of ice below, hot air gun above?
'If' the Peltier module produces electricity regardless of which direction the heat flows to produce a current then maybe the only way to reverse the fan is to actually reverse the connections to the fan motor?
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