Often applied to cooling surfaces, scientists at the Riso National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy in Denmark are now looking at the technology from the point of view of driving an electric current with the waste heat from a property.
By recovering the heat emitted by residential properties and using it to drive a thermoelectric current, the researchers hope to improve households' overall power management and so help the environment.
Their project is split into three parts: developing the technology itself, combining it into a single module which supports the effect, then subsequently incorporating this into a system suitable for installation in homes worldwide.
A particular new element in their research is the use of oxide materials in the thermoelectric device itself, building on Riso's research into fuel cells.
Posted by Simon Jones
