Generation of thermoelectricity for autonomous heating systems

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This proposal aims to research and optimize thermoelectric alloys for the efficient generation of thermoelectricity. The central focus of the proposal is the design and fabrication of thermoelectric generators (TEGs) to be incorporated in oil and natural gas home heating systems, which will render them autonomous under electricity power outages. TEGs are capable of collecting part of the thermal energy of the exhaust gases of a heating system at the rather low temperatures (around 100 C) necessary to optimize the overall efficiency of such system. The implementation of an efficient and autonomous heating system based on TEGs would provide a solution to a currently unsafe situation facing all Canadians, with the added bonus of providing energy savings which will be significant in terms of the thermal energy that can still potentially be recovered. Due to the excellent (already tested) mechanical properties of extruded thermoelectric alloys which we obtained in the past for cooling applications, we  foresee that adequate alloys can be found and processed in order to produce modules with extremely short legs (about a factor of 4 smaller that what has been achieved in practice so far). This unique advantage, while keeping excellent thermoelectric properties and a very low cost, enables us to predict the feasibility of efficient, practical modules with a reasonably small area which will provide in excess of 200W output energy to run heating systems without the requirement of the electric grid.