Off grid battery bank question.

im still puzzling over what are

thermal charging panels?

 

The first panel I saw available was 15 watts and about 4"X4" .
At that I could fill the backside of my wood stove and get the same out put as all the solar panels covering my 19' shop trailer.
I am not one that drives things to their limits so it wouldn't bother me that during the simmer months while the wood stove is dormant those panels would not be producing , however If it were necessary I might apply a few to the water heater stack which does run year round.
The way I figure it , a lot of folk waste a lot of money on phones for hundreds of dollars and I can do the same thing with a 10 dollar phone. both provide communication and that's fine .
I don't mind investing in the future for something that lasts longer than a phone and is worth passing down to my children.
Which in a sense is like giving them an oil well.

 

From what I have seen the big box stores stock just about the cheapest crap they can find and sell for the highest price they can.
I have never seen any decent solar components at a big box store.
I have seen them at Sams club, walmart, Lowes, home Depot, tractor supply, northern tool and harbor freight. All premium priced no name junk. We're talking like several dollars per watt for a questionable panel that I would only be comfortable paying 1 to 2 dollars a watt for.

But I have heard that sams, Lowes and home Depot will special order panels good panels. And that good thing about special ordering through a big box chain can save you the freight shipping charge.

 

If I could find one of these I would be pretty happy haha

 

I figure that if i'm running the wood stove any way the TEG is the way to go making the wood work for me every way I can,
heating ,cooking, and making electricity.

 

Seems as though one could run cold out side air from the floor/wall and pipe it back out, either joining it to the stove pipe, or in a pipe of it's own, there by not releasing cooler air into the house.
If you did it right , seems like it would work by convection not having to run a fan at all providing you pipe connections were air tight.
I was at looking at TEGpro and thinking bout building my own rig.
The thing bout building one's own stuff is being able to make mods and repairs ,due to mistakes.
Modules alone run from $12. - $57. ,assembly is definitely required .

 

Get them too hot and they burn out then you're SOL.