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Matt, in your video you talk about putting a voltage meter across them and labeling which side is up. Can you elaborate on this sometime? No rush.... I'm still waiting for my TEGs to arrive from Hong Kong.

I found the best way to experiment with the things is to play with them on your kitchen stove. Set your meter to Volts DC and connect to both leads, then set the TEG on a burner with a heat sink on top. Always have a heat sink on top or it will overheat in short order. Turn the heat on a modest setting, med-low or so, and your meter should show voltage and polarity. My meter just shows a small - sign if the polarity is reversed in relation to the test leads. That's the method I used, not sure if it's right or wrong, but it worked for me.

The cold weather and regular burns have me tinkering with this stuff again. So far I've only bured up one element and another fell apart but was damaged on arrival. So I've got a couple of these fans going now. They spin on their own, but they don't really move any air. Are they supposed to be powerful?

Ha, no. I apologize if I gave you the idea that they move much air. I do think they break up the stratification and help mix things up a bit, but no, they sure aren't powerful. I bet you can wow some students though! Sorry man, I hope it's not too disappointing. The lights are the coolest project I've done so far, it's like a low fuel light for the heater.

Unless you can play games on it, students could care less.

I've built three of these fans now, playing with different heat sinks, prop sizes, etc. This one actually really cranks pretty good:


I've got a bigger prop that I've played with too that is much lighter, so light in fact, that they will melt if you don't give them a nudge to get going soon enough... good thing they come in a 3 pack. Anyway, the combination in the photo seems to work the best. Incidentally, the biggest heatsinks I have too. I have to put it pretty close to the center of the barrel and get it roaring pretty hot, but it does actually generate a breeze.

Well heck man, that's pretty awesome looking.