I Charged My Phone With a Candle

Summary by Krater

The host demonstrates how to use the Seebeck effect and a thermoelectric generator powered by a candle flame to generate electricity, lighting up LED lights and charging a cell phone.

From the video

Answers: How can you use a candle to generate electricity and charge a phone using the Seebeck effect?

• Seebeck effect
• Thermoelectric generators
• Peltier effect
• Thermocouples
• Electricity generation from heat
• Thermowells

What it concludes

• Candles are very inefficient at making light, turning only about 0.1 percent of chemical energy into light while the rest is wasted as heat.
• Maintaining a temperature difference across a conductor like bismuth generates a voltage via the Seebeck effect.
• Thermoelectric generators or TEGs can take a temperature difference and turn it directly into electrical power with no moving parts.
• Pumping cooling water through the cold side of a thermoelectric generator powered by a candle flame maintains a large temperature difference and successfully generates enough electricity to power LED lights and charge a cell phone.