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TEG KEROSENE LANTERN WITH RADIO

featured in December 05 issue of Audio Designline! CLICK FOR INFO
GENERATE LIGHT, ELECTRICITY AND LISTEN TO THE RADIO!!
RADIO BUILT INTO BASE OF LANTERN.

This fantastic product is highly unusual, and unique in the marketplace. Originally invented by the Russians during the 1960s, and used extensively throughout the Cold War, these lanterns have never really seen the light of day in the Western World. The unit had disappeared from production until a few years ago, when it reappeared on the market in small volumes. After reading about the original Russian lantern in a 1970s alternative energy publication called 'Mother Earth News', I decided to hunt down a manufacturer. It took over 6months to find it, but here it is!

It consists of a Hurricane lantern that has been modified with a TEG (Thermoelectric Generator), which produces a small amount of power which can be used to power a compact FM/AM radion built into the base of the lantern.

 
Close up of the lanter showing the tuning control/headphone connector and the volume/waveband selector. You can see the telescopic antenna in the background. When not in use, this folds neatly underneath the unit.

The TEG incorporated into the lantern runs from the waste heat produced by the exhaust gas. Most TEGs designs are unable to cope with temperatures over 225C. This unit is designed for long term operation at much higher temperatures. The manufacturer claims a power output of 3W and a nominal voltage of 3.5v.

 
In these pictures you can see the TEG component placed sideways against my woodstove. I have inserted 3 red LEDs into the power outlet to demonstrate the electricity production

TEGs (also known as SEBECK DEVICES) produce power by a phenomenon utilised by the common thermocouple - where joints between dissimilar metals will produce tiny amounts of electricity when heated. In fact, in order to get a useful amount of power, these lanterns employ a large bank of hundreds of thermocouples to produce enough electricity to run the radio. The radio can be unplugged, allowing you to utilise the electricity for other low power low voltage requirements such as charging low power portable equipment such as phones.

These devices are an excellent and useful demonstration of a novel method of converting waste heat into a more useful form of energy. The TEG can quickly and easily be removed from the lantern by removing two clips, allowing it to be used for other applications (maybe to produce some electricity to run your volcano monitoring station?!) This can be a very useful tool for science lessons or for anyone experimenting with alternative forms of energy.

The ThermoElectric Generating Lantern also has practical uses anywhere where you are away from conventional sources of electricity, and could even be modified to run/charge other low power items.

USES:

• CAMPING

• EMERGENCY USE

• SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

• RENEWABLE ENERGY EXPERIMENTS

• REMOTE POWER

• SMALL SCALE WASTE HEAT POWER RECOVERY
  
  Here is a photo demonstration of the TEG (removed from the lamp, and stripped of some of its insulation so that you can see the thermocouple array) utilising the heat from my stove to produce electricity. The LEDs start glowing once the voltage exceeds their activation voltage, which occurs at around 120C.