Thermocouple

[.:Endeavour:.]

I want to know where can you find thermocouples in a store to buy or can you make them by using house hold items? The reason why I want to buy or make one is to use it during summer to generate electricity durning the hot weather.

[Integral]

Omega (http://www.omega.com/) is a good place to find theromcouples. You will not find them useful as a powersource in the summer or any other time. what they can do with proper elctronics is tell you how hot it is.

[Dadface]

They are really easy to make though and all you need is two different metals ,usually wires, joined at two different places.Copper and constantan(an alloy) is a common combination

[.:Endeavour:.]

Is there a diagram on how to make one. Because I've been Googling thermocouple but I didn't get a solid description on how to make one except that you need a difference of temperature for it to work which I think I know where to get the two different temperatures. Thank you for your help.

[0xDEADBEEF]

It's dirt easy. Solder or weld two wires of different metals together. Stick the soldered end into something that's hotter or colder then the other end of the two wires and that's enough so there is a minute voltage between the free ends.

Make a long zig zag of alternating wires between the two temperatures to multiply the voltage. This is called a thermopile. The Voltage is #&^#$ small, so unless you are planning a whole furry wire coat around something you are planning to get the thermal energy from, you will be able to run a quartz clock at best.

[.:Endeavour:.]

It's dirt easy. Solder or weld two wires of different metals together. Stick the soldered end into something that's hotter or colder then the other end of the two wires and that's enough so there is a minute voltage between the free ends.

Make a long zig zag of alternating wires between the two temperatures to multiply the voltage. This is called a thermopile. The Voltage is #&^#$ small, so unless you are planning a whole furry wire coat around something you are planning to get the thermal energy from, you will be able to run a quartz clock at best.

Can you show me how you make a thermocouple. I do understand what you're saying only that I would like something visual to make reference on so I know I'm doing it correctly.

[0xDEADBEEF]

Her you go :)
http://www.madwizard.org/images/content/el/reflowoven/thermocouple.jpg

The other end of the wires where you take out the voltage needs to be colder/or warmer. If you use a cable with two wires of the same metal to transport the voltage away from the thermocouple the point that counts and needs to be colder is the contact point of your cable to the thermocouple. Just search for thermopile to get pictures of those. I liked a drawing from a paper from 1912 a lot, but I cannot find it anymore.
But there is quite a few pictures on google even if you discard all the commercial ones, which are encased and don't show anything.

[spaceball3000]

If your looking to making power, grab an peltier.

For example take a look at http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol15/?pg=125
And you can buy them on ebay cheap http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p0.m38.l1313&_nkw=tec+cooler&_sacat=See-All-Categories