THERMOELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY

摘要

The present invention provides a thermoelectric unit that reliably burns the input fuel and transfers the generated heat efficiently to a thermopile for conversion into usable electrical power. The unit is compact and is able to achieve a high reliability, at low cost, because of the simplicity of the design. The burner will start and run on the optimum lean fuel/air mixture and does not require any adjustment either while operating or upon restarting, under either hot or cold conditions. The design of the exhaust chimney prevents external wind from either inhibiting or extinguishing the flame. The fuel orifice and venturi are designed to prevent flame flashback from occurring. The burner, heat collection fins and the hot plates for heat transfer to multiple thermopiles are integrated into one compact casting. These novel features of the present invention result in a thermoelectric converter with higher conversion efficiency, higher reliability, greater simplicity and significantly lower cost than present technology offers.