Hey Robert,
That's pretty much it. The short description of a peltier is :A Peltier cooler/heater or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the device to the other.
Some cars with heated/cooled drink holders use them, and some mini cooled coolers use them. Reverse the polarity, and you reverse the side that is hot. In astronomy cameras, they stack them to get the camera imager really, really cold. That way they can take 20 minute exposures without very much noise.
Maybe a device that was made to generate thermo electric power would be able to generate more power. I used a cold pack on one side, and the hottest tap water I could get on the other, but I was only able to generate about a volt. Not very efficient for about a 100 degree difference. I had hoped it would have been another volt or two out of it at that temp difference.
Here is a picture of what I used, and then the actual device:
And just a peltier normal device without heatsinks:
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...me=102-1668-ND
This explains a little more about them, and their inefficiencies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling
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