Some Things Just Sound Weird

[Jim Koepke]

Like a candle powered LED lantern:

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=68887&cat=2,40731&ap=1

jtk

[David Ragan]

Yep.

What I try to imagine, is how smart folks sit around those big Board Room tables and say "Hey, that sounds like a great idea!! Lets spend out money on it, people will respond to it!!""

Like lots of utterly Stupid commercials. Of course, when I am watching the program with said commercials, what does that say about me?

for the lamp above, lots of survivalist folks will probably flock to get it.

[Myk Rian]

I have a problem with that, as a thermocouple generates a milli-voltage. Not enough to light 1 led, let alone 8 of them.

[Phil Mueller]

David, I'm one of those guys that sit around that board table, as a marketing strategy guy. In my case, I don't invent the stuff, but it becomes my job to figure out the best way to position whatever stuff a client brings to the table. Some products or services are inherently great ideas. Others I politely recommend we research the heck out of it first.

Believe it or not, most larger advertisers will also research commercials. It amazes me as well that some of those ridiculous commercials actually got enough thumbs ups to go to air.

[David Ragan]

David, I'm one of those guys that sit around that board table, as a marketing strategy guy. In my case, I don't invent the stuff, but it becomes my job to figure out the best way to position whatever stuff a client brings to the table. Some products or services are inherently great ideas. Others I politely recommend we research the heck out of it first.

Believe it or not, most larger advertisers will also research commercials. It amazes me as well that some of those ridiculous commercials actually got enough thumbs ups to go to air.

The only explanation I can think of is "groupthink". Isn't that where everyone jumps on the bandwagon, like The emporer's new clothes?

[David Ragan]

I have a problem with that, as a thermocouple generates a milli-voltage. Not enough to light 1 led, let alone 8 of them.

Yes, this occurred to me. Basic physics-conservation of energy. Anybody out there can help us with this?

[John Coloccia]

I don't know for sure, but if someone asked me to design such a thing my immediate first thought would be to use a TE cooler.

edit:
To be a bit more precise, you'd basically run a Peltier cooler in reverse. I guess it would be more proper to call it a "Seebeck Generator" since it's really the Seebeck effect you'd be exploiting. Are you getting all this? :D

So the way a TE (thermoelectric) cooler works is you send a current through it and one side heats up while the other side cools down. You use these all the time to do things like regulate laser temperatures and the like, but I guess they're also being used as beverage coolers these days too.

Well, if instead you heat one side, or more to the point create and maintain a thermal difference, it acts in reverse and generates electricity.

It's just like the piezoelectric effect. Apply a voltage and the material changes size. Changes the size of the material (squeeze it, for instances), and the thing makes a voltage.

[John Coloccia]

I just read through the description and noticed that they actually mention the Seebeck effect, but then call it "thermocouple techology". I see the confusion now. Calling a thermoelectric generator a thermocouple is like calling a tunnel boring machine a drill.

[Bruce Darrow]

All I can say is it works. I got one for my sister - power grid infrastructure is slowly deteriorating here - mostly because of government meddling - and we get way more power outages than we used to, so simple and reliable back up lighting becomes a necessity.

It works. Brilliantly. Plenty of light to read by - or other tasks. It works. Don't much care how.......

So does the stove top fan they offer.

[Jim Koepke]

we get way more power outages than we used to, so simple and reliable back up lighting becomes a necessity.

Sad to hear about your infrastructure deteriorating. We had that in the part of California where we lived before moving to Washington. The electric infrastructure wasn't upgraded mush from what was installed during WW II. Of course energy usage did increase.

Our current situation has seen upgrades since we moved in.

We did have one power failure and found the little batter powered tea lights we found on sale at Christmas time in a pack of a dozen worked quite well for keeping the house lit.

jtk

[Steve Peterson]

It doesn't make any sense to me. If you already have a candle, then just read by candle-light. Why go through the trouble of using light/heat to produce electricity, then turn it back into light. The only way it seems like it would produce more light than you started with is if there was a battery to store up an hours worth of charge and produce 10 minutes of bright light.

$105 is a lot of money that could be spent on a kerosene lantern or a battery powered light plus a lot of batteries.

Steve

[John Coloccia]

It doesn't make any sense to me. If you already have a candle, then just read by candle-light. Why go through the trouble of using light/heat to produce electricity, then turn it back into light. The only way it seems like it would produce more light than you started with is if there was a battery to store up an hours worth of charge and produce 10 minutes of bright light.

$105 is a lot of money that could be spent on a kerosene lantern or a battery powered light plus a lot of batteries.

Steve

That's not true, Steve. The candle gives off a lot of heat and a little light. You put it in that contraption and it gives off a lot more light, using the otherwise wasted heat.

It would be like saying "Why not just burn coal to light your house instead of turning it into electricity?" It's because it gives off a lot more heat than light.

[John McClanahan]

Yes, this occurred to me. Basic physics-conservation of energy. Anybody out there can help us with this?

It may have a lot of thermocouples clustered together, similar to high output LEDs that are an array of smaller LEDs.

I still have trouble believing the LEDs produce more light than the candle.


John

[Bruce Darrow]

"$105 is a lot of money that could be spent on a kerosene lantern or a battery powered light plus a lot of batteries."

Spendy? Yep. But not overly so for a gift.....and there are no batteries to buy and eventually dispose of. No kerosene to buy (or store), either, and far less odor. The tea candles are cheap, and one powers the device for a long time.

BTW, the same sister bought ME a really nice brass NATO kerosene lantern that works under pressure like a white gas Coleman type - mantle and all. Real solid, attractive, (expensive, too!) and now defunct - ignorant I used kerosene from the pump instead of paraffin (as the Brits say) and the additives ruined critical components. Parts are ridiculously expensive, hard to find in the US, and expensive again to ship from overseas, so I've got a nice display piece.....Pure paraffin is also hard to find here, as I found out post failure.

I was hot to get one of the tea candle units for a while, but my ardor has waned - gonna go whole hog someday soon and get a generator and transfer switch. The outages have been lasting long enough that I'm tired of food spoilage and lack of water until power is restored.

FWIW, I have a close friend who heads IT for my power company. He says that in response to rate increase limiting by the Public Service Board, the company has chosen to increase the maintenance/replacement interval on grid components. Together with increased costs maintaining rural rights of way due to herbicide restrictions, this can lengthen the recovery time from weather related outages. Just sayin'.

And yes, this compact unit puts out far more light than the candle that powers it, and its articulated LED head allows to to direct the light far more effectively.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Believe it or not, most larger advertisers will also research commercials. It amazes me as well that some of those ridiculous commercials actually got enough thumbs ups to go to air.

H.L. Mencken: "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

[John Coloccia]

re: being spendy and gimmicky

My first thought was "If the SkyMall ever comes back, I'll have a good laugh reading the page for this thing."