Would this work?

[Possom]

So I had an idea. Might not be a good idea but it's an idea none the less. When I was a kid we used to camp a lot. I would entertain myself by tossing dried oak leaves over the top of the camp fire one at a time and watch the thermal wind carry the leaf up into the air. Why could this energy not be harnessed to generate electricity?

My thoughts are this. During the winter time anyone who burns wood for heat is wasting a lot of the released energy from the wood. Would it be feasible to attach a windmill turbine to the side of a chimney with half the blade running parallel with the top of the chimney. When you have a fire going the hot air rushing over the blades should turn the turbine. Via a pulley system attach the turbine to a chevrolet 2 prong alternator with built in regulator to generate 15 volts of electricity to charge battery banks.

While you are keeping your family warm via a wood fire you would also be generating electricity to power your home. During the winter time the days are shorter and more often cloudy which hinders the ability to generate power via solar panels. I think this would be a good way to supplement the loss of solar power during winter months.

What are y'all's thoughts on this?

[helomech]

I don't think it would work, any back pressure on the exhaust gas on the chimney will cause the smoke to build up in the house, and also choke out the fire. The exhaust has to be as free flow as possible, that is why you want to limit the amounts of turns in your chimney.

Now they do make thermo electric generators. Like this, that you could just set on the wood burning stove and it converts heat to electricity.
http://www.adafruit.com/products/133...nRURoCUOvw_wcB


P.S. I know nothing of that brand, it was just the first one I found. Just do a search for thermo electric generators.

[helomech]

Here is a better one.

http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Camp...0bxBoC4h_w_wcB

[Sniper-T]

you might be able to make something like that work if you were to place your generator on the outside of your home, up above the top of the chimney, low enough to capture the heat but high enough not to obstruct the smoke.

I have no experience with any of this, but it seems like it might work.

They don't generate power, but these are quite common around here and greatly increase the efficiency of heating with wood.

http://www.woodstovefan.net/

[ElevenBravo]

I was thinking the same thing, thermoelectric... though not putting out a lot of power, would be the best heat to electricity option.

In order for the rising heat to spin a turbine to generate electricity, it would have to be akin to what a windmill would turn... that is, a flue would only be enough to charge a "AA" battery I would think, at best.

Plus all the soot etc would gum up the turbine quickly.

I totally agree, there is a LOT of wasted energy going up the flue, but honestly dont think any type of turbine would be very much use. We just gotta figure out how to harness it.

The ONE thing that comes to mind, if copper tubing were wrapped around the flue where it would generate steam, and that in turn ran a steam engine, which turned a generator...

Try Google, SOMETHING has to be been done with some amount of measurable success...

Cheers,
EB