Wood stoves equipped with thermoelectric generators can produce electricity that is more sustainable, more reliable, and less costly than power from solar PV panels.
Found this on the lowtech magazine. What are your toughts?
A 2015 prototype, in which a wood stove used for cooking and space and water heating was equipped with 21 thermoelectric modules cooled by a pumped water system, showed a power production from 25W (burning 1 kg of pine wood per hour) over 70W (4 kg wood/hour) to 166W (9 kg wood/hour).
So, it takes burning 1kg of wood to generate 25 Wh, or 90kJ. One kilo of wood contains, roughly, 20.000kJ of energy. That’s about 0.5%.
It’s fine if you want heat at that time, but quite a bit power demand is when you don’t need any heat.
It also creates huge problems with particulate pollution that are tied with all fossil fuel heating systems.
So, it takes burning 1kg of wood to generate 25 Wh, or 90kJ. One kilo of wood contains, roughly, 20.000kJ of energy. That’s about 0.5%.
It’s fine if you want heat at that time, but quite a bit power demand is when you don’t need any heat.
It also creates huge problems with particulate pollution that are tied with all fossil fuel heating systems.