Thermoelectric devices (waste heat electricity generation)

[droid_ca]

the foot idea that eamarquardt said would be cool as well heck I even thought about a dog tread mill that could make some juice for the trailer

[afreegreek]

wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to just buy another battery?

[Forrest747]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy0UBpagsu8

[PcHistorian]

the electricity the biolite stoves put out is +5 v dc for like cell phone recharging, over a usb (computer ) connector

Those teg's on e-bay though are a lot more powerful than what I would have expected. Besides just the winter camping heater exhaust though, you could use those next to a campfire. Just be aware of the distance and heat involved.

Voltage times amperage equals wattage, so 545w @12vdc is 4.5 amps. The computer fans I know of are 12volts and .25 amps. About 3 watts.

As far as a fan to cool the cold side of the peltier, have you considered using your exhaust heat for that too? use the heat rising to spin a blade, like the blades over a candle or small light on Christmas ornaments, then connect that to a blade circulating air past the cold side... Use sections of 6" dryer exhaust pipe for each stage, out of the heater (exhaust) goes into the hot peliter stage then into the powering the fan to power the cooler phase blade... put both blades on a pin head type arrangement. It won't even take a breeze in the winter to cool the cold side, just a flow of any sort. have you considered like a mushroom head deal where the wind (if it is that cold) pumps the air past the cold side.

[droid_ca]

if you go on to youtube there are videos of a device called a joulethief that has some interesting effects that might be beneficial for this type of setup