light – Xtralec

Thermo Electrics

Once used in outer space with a technology so expensive that until a short few years ago the TEG could have never been used in our every day lives.

The Teg

How the TEG works. We liken its operation to a thunder storm. When a hot cloud meets a cold cloud a bolt of lightening erupts (electricity) with Thermo electrics when a heat is placed on one side of a TEG plate and cold on the other an electrical current erupts ( electricity).

Thermo Electricity invented in the mid 1800s, used in space technology during the 1970s is now in every day use. Until recently only a very small amount of electricity could be produced by a Thermo electric (TEG) plate. In order to create a significant amount of electricity hundreds of these plates had to be coupled together. The cost of production made it impossible to consider use outside specific areas with enormous amounts of available funding.

During recent years projects have started to emerge. Mostly projects requiring small amounts of electricity, perhaps only enough to charge a mobile phone.

Our story, from acorns to oak trees really has happened.

Development has taken another major turn. This time, rather than charge a mobile phone, Xtralec has seen heat driven generators capable of producing enough electricity to power a remote off grid village giving everyone a chance of a better future.

The Oak Tree

Using the same principal as the electric light made from plumbing parts, an aluminium heat sink and two very small TEG plates. By multiplying the TEG plates and changing the heat sink we have developed this micro power station. With the heat of the fire box on one side of the TEG plates, the cooling of a heat sink on the other side, adding electronics and circuitry to the generator has increased the electrical power output very significantly. This micro power station, the size of a cooker in most kitchens is able to power several hundred flood lights.

With many years of research and development we now have a silent running generator with no moving parts capable of putting a remote location onto its own power grid.

Consider its potential, living in the wilderness with no access to conventional fuel to power an electricity generator. This power station so silent in its operation has nothing to maintain, no servicing necessary and no need for part replacement. With the added value of being able to run on any available fuel including wood, grass, leaves, in fact any burning material makes this generator a one of a kind. Perhaps the future really is renewable.

More Than 1 Billion Live Without Electric Light!

What did you do when the sun went down? If you’re reading this, chances are you switched on a light. But for the 1.3 billion people around the world who lack access to electricity, darkness is a reality. There is no electric light for children to do their homework by, no power to run refrigerators that keep perishables or needed medicine cold, no power for cooking stoves or microwaves. What light they have mostly comes from the same sources that humans have relied on forever–firewood, charcoal or dung–and the resulting smoke turns into indoor pollution that contributes to more than 3.5 million deaths a year. “For us, life does not stop after dark,” says Michael Elliott, president and CEO of the development nonprofit ONE. “For 550 million people in sub-Saharan Africa and many more than that around the rest of the world, it does.”

Two Thirds Of Africa Live Without Light!

Right at this very moment 621m Africans – two-thirds of the continent’s population – live without electricity. And the numbers are rising. A kettle boiled twice a day in the United Kingdom uses five times as much electricity as someone in Mali uses in a year. Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest oil exporters but 93m Nigerians depend on firewood and charcoal for heat and light. On current trends, there is no chance that Africa will hit the global target of energy for all by 2030.

Unlike droughts, health epidemics and illiteracy, Africa’s energy crisis seldom makes the headlines. Yet the social, economic and human costs are devastating. Inadequate and unreliable electricity undermines investment. Power shortages cut economic growth by 2-4 per cent annually. The toxic fumes released by burning firewood and dung kill 600,000 people a year – half of them children. Health clinics are unable to refrigerate life-saving vaccines and children are denied the light they need to study.