Sponsored by Mega Design, Inc. and the Penn State Learning Factory
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Website Sections Abstract Market Research & Strategy How it Works Project Development Credits Supporting Documents Proposal Prelimnary Design Review Cricital Design Review 2004 April 26 |
AbstractThe Penn State project team sponsored by Mega Design, Inc. has developed a solid state electrical generator design that uses any difference in temperature to provide a reliable source of electrical power. The end product will generate electrical power from heat differentials provided by stoves and furnaces already for sale or present in people's homes. Furthermore, the design has been realized by a small demonstration prototype that the team has constructed in addition to the design. The design is a clean, quiet, and reliable source of alternative energy. Market Research and Strategy The Solid State Generator will be targetted towards consumers not connected to a power grid and are in search of a reliable source of electricity. It will present several significant advantages over competing power sources (i.e. solar panels, diesel generators, wind power). Namely, it will produce very little noise, will require no extra fuel, and will be a reliable source of power. There are over 3.5 million heating stoves sold a year. If the proposed generators were sold to just 5% of these stoves, 175,000 sales could be made per year. Additionally, there are stoves already present in people's homes that can be fitted with the generator. Brochures that display the product and sales contacts with stove manufacturers and retailers will have to be made. The marketing strategy for the solid state generator is to approach stove manufacturers and retailers with the offer of bundling the generator with new stoves as well as offering the generator as an add-on to previous customers with existing stoves. Stove manufacturers and retailers will become our customers. This will allow any technical problems to be discovered and fixed before reaching the end user, greatly reducing inconveniences experienced by stove owners. Furthermore, aligning the interests of the stove manufacturers and retailers with our's will allow the solid state generator to use the existing sales force of the stove manufacturers and retailers. Hi-Z Corporation, as well as some stove manufacturing firms (i.e. Leisure Stove) are already working with us. These companies all go to shows and have a few thousand dealers as a customer base. They have had much interest in this type of product but it has not really been actively pursued before for many reasons. Mainly, the price on the Peltier junction was too high and the junctions could not handle a lot of heat. The new line of junctions, however, is supposed to increase efficiency from 5% to 20% and that will make business profitable. Our main potential competitor for the generator, the Hi-Z Corporation, has offered to work with us by supplying Peltier junctions rather than design and produce a generator of their own. They are also interested in helping market the generator to increase sales of their Peltier junctions. How it Works 
Currently, there are two popular techniques to convert thermal energy into electrical energy, mechanical generators
and solid state generators. Through our research, the team decided the latter solution was a more feasible and
marketable solution for the situation. There is some headway being made into converting chemical energy into
electrical energy, but this technique is too premature at this stage. Thus, our design utilizes Peltier junctions -
solid-state thermoelectric devices that convert thermal energy into electrical energy or vice versa.A Peltier junction is the combination of the Seebeck and Peltier effects. Discovered by Estonian physicist Thomas Seebeck in 1821, the Seebeck effect occurs when joining two different metals at different temperatures to produce a voltage that is capable of driving a current. This voltage is proportional to the temperature difference and referred to as the Seebeck coefficient. Years later in 1834, French physicist Jean Peltier discovered the Peltier effect by applying electrical current to an n-type semiconductor and a p-type semiconductor connected to each other. By controlling the direction of the current flow in the Peltier effect, an intended area is either cooled or heated as desired. For this project, Peltier junctions are employed to produce a stable electric output (via the Seebeck effect) capable of powering small electronics. One side of the junction is exposed to a heat source while the other side will be subject to room temperature. When the heat source is applied, the "hot" side heat up, thus exciting the electrons within the hot side. These excited electrons will travel through the Peltier junction to the "cool" side. This action produces a voltage at the external electrical connection. However, a set of Peltier junctions alone cannot produce a stable electrical output. During this past semester, our project team has developed a temperature and power control system to cradle a set of Peltier junctions. The main functions performed by this sytem are: controlling the amount of heat transferred to the Peltier junctions, maintaining a low temperature on the cool side, and regulating the power output produced by the Peltier junctions. Project Development 
Design of the project involved many stages. After thorough research on the Peltier junctions and heat
transfer, the design was divided into several subsystems. Namely, heat gathering, heat transfer and control, and cooling.
After various ideas were evaluated, the final design was implemented in a prototype. The prototype was then put through
testing, modified, and tested some more.Credits The members of the project team are:
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