Exposing a FAKE Thermoelectric Generator and building a REAL one! 

Publishing fake projects is a thing. I understand why people do it but it upsets me to think how many viewers are frustrated when it doesn't work for them. This frustration certainly leads some folks with curiosity about electronics to abandon the hobby before they really get started.

Engineers: this is a peltier Generator, basically generates electricity from temperature difference between cold and hot... *_everyone else on the internet: OMG LOOK A FREE ENERGY DEVICE!!!!_*

I LOVE how we've basically done concluded the same design on this idea, independently haha. Great minds and all that! Or the logical conclusion. Loved the in depth coverage of the current capability etc! Good job. Really going to have to revisit this topic actually... got some new ideas. Btw, we should do a collab sometime!

For anyone replicating this experiment, be careful when placing a bunch of tea lights right next to each other. If there’s not enough distance between them they can get hot enough to ignite the liquid wax and you end up with one giant fire.

Ooooo Electroboom should be interested in this. His next video:"How to destroy your phone using a candle,heat sink and some Peltier device".

Someone did this with a bunch of the TEC panels, I think it was 12 or 24, he used river water to cool it and a campfire to heat it. It was really impressive. It was Tech Ingredients, he also made a fridge using them.

This is the first time I'm seeing his face

"Video unavailable This video is private." Haha, looks like his video is not public anymore xD

0:02 GreatScott turned into a Minecraft villager

Hello. Instead of TEC versions, use TEG, that is for GENERATORS :) Thanks for video.

No need to tell us not to call him out, cause he took down the video, lol.

Why would we even be bothering with stuff like this, when there's a publicly available thermonuclear fusion generator just floating in the sky.

Feels like a Mehdi video but with less/more brow. (less overall brow but more brows if you count them)

Thank for this video, it was really intersting. The thermo-electric generator efficiency depends on the heat flux that goes trough the pelletier module, but in both designs (yours and the fake one), most of the head flux just pass trough the surrounding air. Therefore I presume that the design can be improved by adding some insulation, that prevents as much airflow as possible without switching off the candle. As a first try, I'd just replaced the metal grid cylinder with something much more closed like a soda can with a small opening, or a cardboard box attached to a heat sink.

THE RECTFI.... eerrr... GREAT SCOTT!

We use TEG's (thermal electrical generators) in the Bush in Northern Canada. Natural gas flame on one side produced about 40 Watts.... But used a tone of gas. An interesting experiment would be to attach these TEG unites to the side of a wood stove.

Nouuu nouuuu - Great Scott(2019)

Ahahah techbuilder took the video down

Roll the intro! THE RECTI- oops wrong channel again.

I like how the "pedestal" you put the tea light on is just a WIMA film capacitor

0:10 first reaction video from GreatScott

Three German personalities i'm subscribed: 1. Manni Gaming - pc gaming 2. Captain Joe - airplanes 3. Great Scott - electronics

so GreatScott is rectifing some YT videos Now 😂

This is the first time I have seen Scott.

GreatScott is the only RU-vidr I know who still uses handsaw... Where is Colin Furze? :)

The problem is ur tea light is too far away from the heat sink.

Would a stirling engine be better with a dynamo and same amount of candles?

TEG expert here, nicely done GreatScott. Here’s a few bits of info on the subject. 1. The effect your seeing is called the Seebeck Effect. 2. The most efficient TEG system made is around 0.4%. 3. TEG’s are best suited for space exploration. This is because of a: vacuum of space slows the oxidation of the substrates b: infinite cooling due to the vacuum of space c: infinite heat from celestial bodies i.e. the sun. If no passive heat source can be used, radioactive isotopes are used, these are called RTG’s (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators). 4. The common substrates used to make thermoelectric modules are made of Bismuth Telluride or Lead Telluride that is doped with different compounds to make them Negative Or Positive Charged. Surprisingly, there is only a few manufactures who specialize in this field of alternative energy. So far China is in the lead in making these modules at such a low cost. High Efficient modules can run into the $1000’s. Makes it difficult for US manufactures to compete.

electroboom you switched places,face,reactions everything i am disappointed

Being a boy it doesn't feel very great saying this but Scott is actually handsome.

Great job... we need more debunkers like you to stop these money-grubbing liars! 👍

Hello Scott. In my final Electrical engineering project I have worked with a Brushless DC motor (form a hard disk) as a wind generator, and I would like to know why is it that you get less energy form the electrical machine working as a generator. I though all electrical machines were reversible without different power losses!!! Thanks for your great videos :)

Thermally conductive paste is actually a bad conductor of heat as compared to the metallic heat sink. Only small proportion must be used to fill the contact gaps between the heatsink and the module. You have used so much paste that it might have adversely affected the performance of the heatsink to radiate heat.

We cannot leave everything for @Thunderfoot to debunk 😁😁😁, Great video !

I love proyects with fail parts (soldering aluminum) that gives a better view to the public

At least know I know how to keep my phone charged if I ever get stuck in the Arctic.

Techbuilder has a few 'fake' projects. If your looking for more stuff to debunk look at the piezoelectric generator.

Move your heat source closer to the TEG units, add a heatsink to the bottom side to increase heat-gathering surface area. The heat source is poor- much of your heat is wasted pouring away from the unit. Putting a large heatsink with much more surface area for the heat to be captured from the tea candles as well as moving them much closer (less height) would have made a substantial difference. Using only one of these low current TEG modules, I installed a small heatsink on the bottom and applied a backpacking stove at low output mode/small flame, the flame was directly applied to the small heatsink feeling for the least amount of wasted heat escaping the unit. I installed a large CPU heatsink with heatpipes on the other side of the TEG. I did not push the unit to its limits at all and I was able to get consistent 350mah at 5V self powering its own 120mm fan to cool the large heatsink. This 350mah was only when the fan was forcefully stopped/braked, when the fan was free spinning at high speed, the current draw was only 70mah at 6.7v (less resistance) but proving there was plenty of spare current using a small flame and only one TEG module at low and safe temperatures avoiding burning of unshielded wires.

What you should have done with the aluminum solder is to clean the oxide from the aluminum in order to clean the joint.

Nice build 👍 what if you made a few of those and you wired them in parallel do you think this would work over a bigger heat source without ice

I think you also need a special flux to solder Aluminium, because it forms Aluminium-oxide as soon as it gets in contact with oxygen. That is probably why you where not very successfull ^^

Take a peltier module to a geothermal hotspring during the winter.

LOL, that intro is like when ElectroBOOM rectifies videos, only that much more calm (and without getting yourself shocked).

How much energy was used to "generate" those ice cubes? :D

Unfortunately, most videos featuring peltiers (including this one) forget how crucial clamping pressure is for the TEC's efficiency. Nice video for a proof of concept though.

1:00 Your face doesn’t match your voice 😂 You look different than I had thought, Scott. Btw, nice video :) I’ve been here since 45k subs on my older accounts

"This has to be a joke" Dude, you have a great meme potential

I still believe you did this wrong. They’re too far away from the heat source. They enough power to generate at least one amp at 5v. Don’t have to have ice... on such small candle set up. Buy some cpu heat sink... possible small ones one for each TEM. I know this because i have a fire place fan powered via a TEM. This fan have One TEM... and measured it it showed way more than you do from 6 TEM same size. Maybe you’re cooling them too much. Because i find this very unlikely that a commercial ONE TEM from a factory built device, does a better job than 6 in your set up.

I thought he was watching ElectroBOOM failed attempt

Karma. I will say it again "karma" Thieves and scammers are deforming / ruining their soul's purity AND bring about bad luck in their life's journey. In most religions it is believed that if the soul is not at least 40-percent pure, then you do not cross over to heaven. I would prefer to have no friends than loser friends. I will save myself and win this quest.

I've been following TechBuilder even before he had youtube channel, he did a lot of his projects when he was young so this one might be just remake of his older project (not trying to defend him, he should have redo all calculations or at least mention true power output). He also made shoes that generate electricity by using piezo electric elements when he was 15 for Google Fair 2014.

Thermoelectric generators are also available, the chip is little bit thinner and the sellers says that they are specifically designed for generating power not for cooling.

You should check out techingredients’ version of a TEG

2:53 when German gets you XD

2:11 > A bit of grease

Should you not be comparing against a TEG (Thermo-Electric Generator) not a TEC (Thermo-Electric Cooler). TEC are better at cooling not generating electricity from heat like a TEG. Also TEG have max temp ratings, so you can better optimize the heat source.

Let's call ' The Rectifier'!!!!

Would a setup like this be remotely effective on the surface of a wood burning stove, considering irons heat capacitance?

Now I see how you say "Let's get started" :)

Add some plutonium-238 and now you have a radioisotope thermoelectric generator

When soldering aluminum, I believe you need a flux to clean the surface for the aluminum filler material.

the way he described the hot and cold sides of the heatsink generating electricity sounded like an exploit in a videogame

You use way to much thermal paste

if you want use ( Al ) solder , you should first clean Al oxide by filing the edges , second you should use Flux (paste like ) this material make the solder stuck and flow

I love this new style scott... super awsome way of introduction..

Regarding the peltier cell array you created, I believe that by connecting them all in series you are limiting the total current produced to the minimum. As a suggestion: Once you are using a buck boost converter, output voltage should not be a problem to you, but power. I would try rewiring the cells all in parallel (you can also include diodes at the outputs of each cell to prevent cells from consuming each other's generated current) and see if that increases the output current you get at 5V Thank you!

The French channel "Incroyable Expériences" did the same thing but for real a long time ago

you know if you had sanded the areas you were soldering you could have gotten adhesion with the materials. you can't weld metal on metal without a medium. even welding rods contain a flux.

ElectroBOOM x GreatScott when?

broo what happen if i use it to cooling cpu processor and if it is then i don't have to buy a liquid cooler

Hey could you see if you can light a LED with a “foxhole radio” like they built in WW2? I’ve been seeing a video go around where a guy uses the power from FM radios to light one for free

your supposed to use TEG's not TEC's for this project

Bro you are life savior. I'll be completing my electronics engineering this year. Your videos are very educational. Thanks

what if you had used ammonium chloride instead of ice? And used copper for the base, or a conductive graphite layer, to transfer the heat?

Replace the little tea lamp with about 30kg of glowing plutonium.

Is it me or are you using waaaaay too much thermal paste???

I was a victim of techbuilder 😭😭😭

survival situation: spending 100$ in amazon and two days to make this thing to just charge your phone

I was so confused. I always thought, from your accent, that you were Japanese 😁 my bad! Love the videos, keep up the great work!!

Maybe he had the candle closer to the generator, but lol he private the video but really, who cares becasue he still got views = money

"you just witnessed how I watched a video (...)" So... you're a native German speaker that watches videos, talking to himself in English? This must be a joke, right? (Disclaimer: yes, I know it was made for fun)

He already set the video to private. Awww.

Well tbh i will just use the power used by the fans attached to heatsink to charge my phone

How much money you paid for the icing and candles? And how much will it cost the device? 🤔🙄

Efficiency suggestion: 1) Use an in insulative material for the sides of the water reservoir instead of the aluminium. You could also add a top. Both will make the ice last longer. Someone already mentioned adding salt to the ice water to make it colder. 2) Add an insulative skirt to the bottom as well, the candles will fill it from the top down with the coolest air spilling out at the bottom and the hottest air will be trapped at the top.

It has to be fake because those square modules melt very easily when overheated. they are only for low heat.

"By adding a bit of thermal paste" as he proceeds to put all of the paste in the known world on the sink

Try using dry ice in a mixture eter-alcohol instead common ice in water.

Me: Do thermal generators exist? 2 seconds later... Great Scott: **A video about thermal generators.** Great video BTW

I think a chunk of plutonium 238 would work much better in place of the candles :)

Hot glue: *exist* Great Scott: this is beyond science.

Enjoying your videos. Few years ago, bought a modified to be run by kerosene, RITEG or RTG Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. Those have been used for decades for powering remote lighthouses. However, it uses TEG-s not TEC-s. The G stands for Generator, and those come usually in darker mostly gray color.

oh god, you have a face!! XDD

Perhaps you would get a performance boost if you added salt to the ice water mix.

The thing is, shallow people are more likely to watch that kind of videos with the "wow factor" and clickbaity titles.

If you try searching it up, it is deleted, Your Welcome for saving your time

2:13 *MY EYES*

I just realized that you are German by looking at the ice bucket. I have been wondering your accent for awhile!

Tech Ingredients beat you to it by a few days

You need a special gas environment to do things, welding ... , with aluminum.