Powering sensors through Energy Harvesting from Water Pipes with a Peltier Module

This thesis examines whether a system containing a thermoelectric generator connected to a heated water pipe could be designed to harvest electrical energy to supply a microcontroller for temperature differences of 0 and 35 degrees between the pipe and ambient air. The microcontroller needed to perform temperature measurements and communicate with an external system through radio. An electric boiler was used and an aluminium attachment designed to secure the thermoelectric generator and heat sink to the pipe. The experimental findings were compared with the simulated counterparts. Despite the low efficiency of the whole system, the results indicated that enough power was harvested to supply the system and charge a capacitor between the desired voltage levels in a suitable time frame. Only for the lower temperatures it produced longer times for the capacitor charging. This thesis also examines the relation between the harvested power and the chosen heat sink. It showed that one of the obstacles is choosing a heat sink with a low enough thermal impedance, proven experimentally by subjecting the heat sink to a fixed airflow, increasing the extracted power