How to Charge Your Cellphone Using Wasted Heat

Ilya writes "Companies such as BMW are investing in Thermoelectric Generators to make their cars more efficient by replacing the alternator. Thermoelectric Generators convert wasted heat from the engine into electrical power. This green instructable shows how you can use the same technology right now at home to harvest expelled heat from home appliances to charge your cellphone and other gadgets. Also features a lego racer powered by the roaring flames of a tea candle."

BWM makes awesome cars

[Anonymous Coward]

BWM makes awesome cars

I charge my cellphone while riding my Carnot cycle

[thomasdz]

I like to work out in my rec. room with various exercise equipment. My favorite? The Carnot cycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot_heat_engine)
I just hop on and convert all the waste heat in the room to useful energy

Wish I could harvest the power from my farts.....

[Finallyjoined!!!]

I could probably power a small village :-)

Re:Wish I could harvest the power from my farts...

[d474]

Did you customize that sig to your comment, or should you go see a doctor about your explosive flatulence problem?

At last!

[goombah99]

finally someone invents a use for the formerly useless lego mindstorms thermal sensor. Use it to let your mindstorms bot find a recharging stations

laptop heat? can that be used to charge it self?

[Joe The Dragon]

laptop heat? can that be used to charge it self?

Re:BWM makes awesome cars

[Hognoxious]

I prefer Adui. You can't beat their Quartto transmission on a wet road.

Re:Sipping From a Firehose

[Hognoxious]

How many cheeseburgers per cubic library of congress is that?

Re:laptop heat? can that be used to charge it self

[zindorsky]

No. See the laws of thermodynamics. [slashdot.org]

Re:Thermodynamics

[AnotherBlackHat]

Obviously you can reclaim some energy from heat, but you can't reclaim it all, as that would break the 3rd law of thermodynamics.

That's the 2nd law, not 3rd.

1st law - You can't win.
2nd law - You can't even tie.
3rd law - You can't get out of the game.

Re:laptop heat? can that be used to charge it self

[Linker3000]

That heat is traditionally used for roasting nuts

Re:Sipping From a Firehose

[chromas]

I used to have neighbors who would leave their air conditioners running all day, then, when they came home, they'd let the doors hang open for a while to let some warm in. Less stupid people could help, too.

Re:Sipping From a Firehose

[camperdave]

Why do air conditioners not come with clocks, so they can be set to be on at specific times?

$75 for an ipod charger?

[billybob_jcv]

"It was the G1-1.4-219-1.14 $75 from tellurex."
Using "waste" sure is expensive...

Re:laptop heat? can that be used to charge it self

[geobeck]

Keep the hot side hot and the cool side cool... don't tell me McDonalds had the secret to providing a minuscule increase in energy efficiency and only used it to make a crappy burger! [wikipedia.org]

Wall warts to charge my cell phone!

[macraig]

I wanna use my huge bank of toasty little wall warts to charge my cell phone. If I can do that the lazy little power-sucking tribbles might finally justify their existence.

Re:BWM?

[zullnero]

You should get in touch with the GP, Bill Winston Ministries may be interested in helping your friend clear some of those old BWM posters out of his warehouse. I'm assuming, of course, that Bill Winston might think it a nifty idea to sell his "Ministries" by proudly featuring fancy cars.

Re:Sipping From a Firehose

[kpainter]

I have my thermostat programmed to get me a beer since she is half-way to the kitchen anyways.

Re:Sipping From a Firehose

[palegray.net]

I can set your thermostat via the the Internet, too.

Cosmic microwave background radiation

[anwyn]

I have a secret plan to run ipods off of the Cosmic microwave background radiation.

Re:Sipping From a Firehose

[mrchaotica]

...because they are two complicated.

Yeah, just like homophones!

Re:Sipping From a Firehose

[Hognoxious]

just like homophones!

Like this? [apple.com]