Energy Harvesting from the Waste Heat of an Electrical Oven via Thermoelectric Generator

Abstract

This paper presents an attempt to generate the electricity by recovering the waste heat of an electrical oven. An experimental work has been done to investigate the electricity production by using a thermoelectric generator (TEG). The performance characterization of TEG was experimentally investigated in an open circuit mode by connecting the multimeter directly to the TEG and in a closed circuit mode by connecting different load to the TEG. The key results showed that it is possible to generate up to 1 V and 30mW in the open circuit condition, while the TEG could generate a 0.5 V and 25 mW in the closed circuit conditions when the maximum temperature differences across the TEG is about 20 °C. The power output could be increased by using more than one TEG module. This power could be used for charging a cell phone or light emitting diodes LEDs during cooking.