One of the projects I'm working on uses a peltier generator (thermo-electric cooler).
Two things about that:
1) If you electrically charge a thermo-electric cooler and it forces heat out in one direction. It's a diode for heat (of sorts). One side gets cold and the other hot. Thus why the thermo-electric cooler is used for mini-fridges.
2) If you heat one side of the peltier generator you can generate current. But it's crap for efficiency. But, if you have waste heat anyway... why not?
So, first thing is to pump some heat and generate some electricity. A 15-year old girl is currently mastering that process to create a flashlight that is powered by body heat. So, who knows, maybe it can power my thermometer project. I have no idea--I just need to try it out.
For the first bit, though... I'm thinking I'll build a cooler for my PC. The hot periods of summer make things hard on game playing.
In this vein today I scavenged this:
