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.

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!

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

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.

0:02 GreatScott turned into a Minecraft villager

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

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!!!!_*

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.

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

This is the first time I'm seeing his face

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

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

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

0:10 first reaction video from GreatScott

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.

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.

Nouuu nouuuu - Great Scott(2019)

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

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.

It's funny how at a certain part of education; you can just look at stuff and laugh at the illusionists props, because you can plainly see all the parts required for the solution are not accounted for. What a time to be alive. Golden age inbound.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

You need to apply pressure to the peliter to get maximum effect out of them. The thermal exchange between the plates will be really low without the pressure and that will of course effect the power output. These things is said to have been used on chimneys in Siberia. Really cool things!

so GreatScott is rectifing some YT videos Now 😂

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

Asking the viewers to not bully the guy with the fake project. Class act!

Wow! I have watched numerous videos of you, but now I see you for the first time. Keep up the good work!

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

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

Its like the "perpetual motion free energy" annoying scam videos. They make them because A) Most people still believe theres a "free lunch" B) Most of the public is ignorant of physics & electronics so they can be exploited. Thanks for guys like you trying to help change this !!!!

This is the first time I have seen Scott.

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

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

First time putting a face to a voice. I thought you would be a bit older. Glad to have a face to a voice. Your penmanship is still top notch!!! I wish I could write that good.

2:53 when German gets you XD

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.

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

TechBuilder : *sings* You really got me, You really got me

with your rebuild of his project, I would suggest that you could increase your efficiency a whole lot by getting the candle closer to the flame, surrounding the pencil holder with aluminum foil and operating it in winter time with colder air passing by the top fins. Also for the one you made, spread out the modules so there is more heat sink per module and use a bigger heat sink

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

Nobody: GreatScott: But never the less

"Best for a survival situation. "You'll need to keep adding ice to it..." I'm going to try to avoid the situation where that's not only needed, but possible as well."

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!

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

There are Thermoelectric Generators which are like the TECs he's using in this video but are made for generating electricity (as the name suggests) much more efficiently. NASA has been using TEG and radioactive sources for some applications, in the hundreds of watts range iirc

This is so funnest. I purchased 2 peltiers and the same circuit board you used and some LED lights. I ordered it 2years ago and just came across the package today. I can’t remember what it was for lol? I think it was for my son’s science project. But the parts showed up late, so we did something else. I also found 1/2” piezo’s. What was I planning. lol. 😂 I can’t remember

TechBuilder was just a kid when he won the google science fair with his piezoelectric generator. The project is almost the same as his thermo generator that produce low power. I think he worked on these project not to trick us but only to make small projects that can be adjust in due time while some supporting technology is not yet available at this present time. He is not a fake kid. He is just learning the curve line.

2:11 > A bit of grease

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

This is probably the best example of i am about of this man career

For a flexible fuel TEG, what if you used 2 containers with modules sandwiched between them? Fill cold side with cold alcohol or antifreeze. Fill hot side with heated thermal oil. Cold-side liquid could be left outside during winter months. Hot-side oil could be heated with either fire or solar via Fresnel lens or parabolic reflector. Seems like that would give better control of temps on hot side (to keep the heat under the module’s recommended max operating temp) and allow flexibility for heat sources. As well, with a thermos, hot oil could be stored until it’s time to use the TEG or refill the hot side. Just an idea.

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

ich mag diese perspektive am anfang, bitte mach das in jedem video so

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

I've never thought that Tech Builder may make a fake projects . I am following him since a long time and he has some very good projects

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.

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 :)

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

Love this 😁 I'm working on something similar. Note that ThermoElectric Coolers and ThermoElectric Generators are similar but different. You're using the coolers TEC in reverse but you'll have better results with the generators TEGs

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.

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

As a career EE with >20 years in RFIC design I can say you totally NAILED IT! The fake one failed a freshman physics analysis big time...calculate the energy available from the tea candle flame (old school bomb calorimeter), account for low efficiency of Seebeck Effect and it is no where near the amount of power (volts * amps) needed to do a legit charge. 5V @ a few mA probably won't even power the charge controller in a cell phone, never mind charge the battery.

Excellent work man. These people wish to tap into "zero point" and "free" energy when they barely use what we make efficiently. I'm working on ways to be efficient as possible so that I can make my energy NEEDS as low as possible. Makes it easier to generate what you need.

You should check out techingredients’ version of a TEG

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

just a few notes : aluminum can NOT be soldered, and the correct hole for tapping standard M5 (0.8mm pitch) is 4.2mm , any way, great vid !

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

ElectroBOOM x GreatScott when?

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

It is very interesting how every now and then we discover something on the internet that seems so good to the average Joe but, in reality, it is just nonsense. I liked your style of testing and redoing the right way. It is much more constructive than what some other people does by just writing bad talking in their comments. Kudos to you.

Bro. You should start a series called "Exposed" where you showcase "fake" electronics projects that are trying to rip us off.

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

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

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.

I love that all those videos are like "for places where electricity might not be available but they always have ice"

Techbuilder was my inspiration while getting into this hobby, his radio transmitter video is my favourite. I like his video style, they good quality. I think if he can get people into the hobby, he's done his job good enough.

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

Make 4 sided boxes with the plates and stack them 4 levels high for a total of 16 plates. Cut a square hole the same size as your TEC box stack and water tight glue it in place. Fill the cup with ice water and raise it up off the table about 4 cm with 3 or 4 little objects. Place a single candle beneath it. I think we need to make micro heat pipes to upgrade out TEC modules

Maybe try with a lower water level in the ice tank, or more ice? Since ice floats, any thickness of water-only at the bottom of the tank will let the heat sink temperature rise. I know, it's probably not even a measurable difference, but with that small a power output, every tenth of a degree matters. Ice should be touching the bottom in several places for best heat transfer.

I thought he was watching ElectroBOOM failed attempt

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

You should be able to make ice outside in the wintertime or at least bring in snow from time to time if you lose power during a blizzard. With ice storms, you'll have to ice trays on an elevated surface such as a metal table as the ground might be too warm. If you can't power a cooling fan with candle power, I'd forget about it.

I think the issues you were having with the soldering is due to the oxide layer Aluminum protects itself with. You may have to prepare both mating surfaces just before soldering due to how quickly the oxide layer forms.

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

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

Funny thing is you needed electricity to make ice in the first place ! I wonder if you made one of these that has one side heated by concentrated rays from the sun and the other side cooled by water drawn from a stream or the ocean would work ? Probably easier to just use solar panels instead!

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.

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

Does anyone remember that little twat, who made an “energy harvester”, out of some wire and a spoon? It was all over the news and he was being invited to speak at tech seminars. Nobody would call ‘BS’ on the kid, because they were all afraid of being accused of crushing the kid’s dreams. Except for ElectroBoom. He ripped that kid a good one. 😂 For the sake of nostalgia, here’s ElectroBoom’s video on it: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pdqaqbirnNeviJc.html

To solder aluminum you must remove it’s thin layer of oxidation, it’s different to ferrous rust that keeps exposing the layer of metal to the air. Aluminum oxide acts like a shield, it must be sanded off and quickly fluxed or deprived of oxygen with a heavy gas, aluminum is quite the hassle to weld and solder, if not properly done it doesn’t adhere at all

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

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

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 ^^

7:47 putting them in series increasing the amperage, but maintaining 12v

I like the idea of a wood stove exhaust battery charger. The cold outside air and the hot exhaust of a wood burning stove is a great place for a battery charger to go.