Am I the only one who thinks this is awesome? It makes electric light from the heat of a candle. Seems backwards until you consider how much light it creates from that single candle. Candle-Powered LED Lantern - Lee Valley Tools That price though - at $100 I'm going to try making my own.
Wish I had some of those back when Hurricane Sandy caused a blackout, I was stuck using those crappy little candles as my main light source (not fun). Price is pretty steep, though...
That's actually a really smart idea. I'm interested as to whether you could use the same principle on a larger scale, combining, say, the heat of a bbq with some mirrored light concentrators into a spotlight for the prep/work area on the que.
If you could get a big enough peltier panel or a bunch of small ones I would think that should be possible. I got one coming from ebay for $3 that I think is what this lantern uses. All it is is the peltier and a bunch of LEDs in a nice enclosure. You're paying $99 for the nice box and a buck for the actual electrics.
I found a cheaper, more versatile alternative: tPOD1 Same principal, but this one will run anything that plugs into a USB port using one candle, and it comes with a light. For $70 I'm buying this. They have a more expensive one you can put over a small campfire or propane stove. Great emergency/camping item. Charge my phone/ipod with a candle - yes please.
Pretty much, but you'd be paying that princely sum for a nice patio lantern regardless of it's advertised buck-rogers futuretech.
