The Thermoelectric Generator utilizes the temperature differential between very hot air and very cold air to generate electricity. What creates the hot air isn't important - a burn chamber specific to the purpose can be used, or hot gases pumped out of another area. Cold air, meanwhile, is created by passing air through cooling tubes located in space.

Although it's usually the last power source people set up if not automatically connected to another power source, it's otherwise the only power source that can be accessed by Atmospherics, as they are responsible for piping systems and are most familiar with setting up burn chambers, should the situation call for it.

The generator is a three-piece machinery item that consists of a generator in the center, and two circulators on either side. Extras can be ordered from cargo. Thermoelectric generators output power based on:

• Heat difference between the gas piped through the two circulators.
• Specific heat of the gases piped through the circulators.
• Flow rate.

While the 'hot' side and 'cold' side does not matter, the loops need to be very different in temperature. Their mols and pressure do not affect output, though may be significant to your build.

A working thermoelectric generator consists of:

• A hot loop, usually hooked into a burn chamber, to generate hot gas
• A cold loop, usually hooked to heat exchange pipes or thermal plates in space
• Gas inside the loops
• Two circulators anchored on either side of a generator
• A gate or pump to cause gas to direct flow

Ships with a pre-fabricated Thermoelectric Generator are quite useful, as with very little effort and a negligible amount of risk, you can gain outputs of 5.75+ MW (or 1 KW per degree of difference between the two pipes.) Assuming a typical set-up involving a pre-built burn chamber:

• Wrench on two phoron canisters and one oxygen canister to the ports near the burn chamber.
• Open the top digital valve near the burn chamber
• Unwrench the vent outside the burn chamber.
• If it isn't a volume pump already, replace the gas pump into the cold line - located near the blue tile - with a volume pump.
• Wrench a phoron canister to that port and turn on the volume pump.
• Turn on both volume pumps near the generator itself.
• Then, configure the computer.
  • The Atmospheric Automations Computer is effectively a normal air filter system that allows you to control the rate gases are introduced into the chamber, and what gases to remove from the chamber. By default, you want to set injection to On, set injection rate to 200, set the scrubber to On, and set it to filter out Phoron only.
  • Optionally, toggle the Scrubber mode to off once you're satisfied with the configuration; this prevents the hot line from drawing in phoron, allowing it to heat up more quickly. You can toggle it on after a few minutes when the phoron is hot enough - around 3000 degrees should do nicely.
• Click the 'Stopped' button at the top of the interface, toggling it to 'Running'. You should see the burn chamber flood with phoron, then catch on fire. If it doesn't catch on fire on its own, press the igniter button.

Like any engine, the Thermoelectric Generator requires regular maintenance. As your hot loop begins to cool, output will lower. It will take about half an hour for your output to die down fully.

Rebooting the generator is a simple process.

• Use the computer to turn off the injector.
• Remove the old cans and replace them with new cans in the same configuration.
• Press the 'vent' button, which will open the vents drawing air into the waste loop. Wait for the chamber to empty fully. You can monitor its progress with the nearby tank monitoring computer.
• Close the shields and set the injector back to 'on'.

The most common cause of zero power output is flooding the hot loop. Standard volume pumps stop working at 9,000 kPa so if the hot loop goes above that threshold, the TEG will stop producing power entirely. Opening the bypass valve will reduce the pressure but will also reduce the temperature of the hot loop substantially. A better solution is to replace the bypass valve with a gas pump and pump hot gas into the cold loop until the hot loop goes back below 9000 kPa. Do not worry about warming up the cold loop as it has a cooling loop in space, any hot gas pumped into it will very quickly be cooled down to cryogenic temperatures.

A word of warning: when the ship is parked planetside or traveling through a gas giant, most of the thermoelectric generators will suffer drastic power reduction or may even shut down (as the cold loops that normally stay frosty in space instead get heated to the temperature of the outside atmosphere). This should be no problem as long as your crew is prepared and has alternate engines available.

This is another way to set up the TEG so it produces power, and requires little attention afterwards.

This TEG setup is for those who want to set up the power once and never touch it again. This setup takes about 5 to 10 minutes if done by a skilled atmos tech. It is also great for people who want to make a lot of power in a short amount of time since at start-up this TEG makes 10 to 20 mega watts. And this TEG does not suffer from clogging in the cold loop, since there are no pumps to move the air, but a gas chamber, the air is able to move much faster, and at greater volume than the traditional setup.

• Remove the two volume pumps.
• For the hot loop place a vent facing south and a scrubber facing north, then for the cold loop, do the opposite, vent facing north, scrubber south.
• Go to the Air Alarm and turn the scrubbers and vents on, make sure the new vents have their pressure checks off, and the scrubbers are set to syphon.
• Connect a phoron tank to the loops, you can empty the entire canister, or just leave it connected as is.
• Connect two phoron and two oxygen tanks to the Burn Chamber's fuel line.
• Disable the scrubbers and make sure the loop exhaust valves are closed.
• Watch as the TEG makes power.

If the round continues long enough that this TEG starts to lose power, simply put more fuel into the Burn Chamber.

Either scrub out the CO2 inside the chamber with Atmos Automation Console, or open the secure doors to space.

Connect 2 phoron, and 2 oxygen canisters to the fuel line.

Inject the fuel, and let the chamber heat up again.

• You could use a different gas in each loop for better performance.
• Run a pipe from Atmos to the burn chamber to have a nigh-infinite fuel source.
• Use layer pipes to add more vents and scrubbers.

You can increase your power significantly (up to 300% efficiency with linear growth based on your flow capacity) by adding space lubricant from chemistry to each circulator, which can hold up to 25u. Be careful not to spill it, as it is somewhat dangerous on the floor. As long as there is at least some lube left in the generator it will retain the bonus.

Over time, the lube will turn into toxic waste based on how hard your TEG is working. It converts at a 5:1 ratio, so 25u space lubricant will become 5u toxic waste. Toxic waste doesn't damage the circulators, but the reduction in lubricant will reduce efficiency.

To cancel out the waste and make room for more lube, pour in ethanol from your provided ethanol tank. It will cancel out the waste at a 1:1 ratio, so pour in only exactly as much is needed. If you accidentally spill something else inside, you'll need a dropper to remove it from the circulator.

Engine oil is an acceptable substitute for space lubricant, though it only boosts efficiency by half as much as space lubricant.

• Line up your circulators with the generator and ensure they are rotated properly.
• Wrench down all three pieces. Click the generator to make sure it recognizes the two circulators. If it doesn't, your rotation is incorrect.
• A knotted wire should be placed under the generator piece, which is where power flows from the generator into your power network.
• Next to each circulator, add a volume pump. These ensure that gas travels in one direction. Without these pumps, you will have no flow and generate no power.

Your objective is to create a loop that will generate very cold phoron, but it doesn't need to hold much phoron. Phoron is used because it has a very high specific heat. A cold loop requires no upkeep and shouldn't need to be purged. There is nothing gained by increasing the mols in this loop, so hooking it into a gas miner will not provide an advantage.

With cooled phoron, less is more. Eight thermal plates are more than enough to keep your gas perfectly chilled. You can stack north and south thermal plates on the same layer, for a total of eight. This saves space and makes a smaller target site for stray meteors or missiles. Use one of the layers to connect the top to the bottom.

There are two main ways of designing a hot loop, both of which involve building a burn chamber.

• Option A: Scrub the heated phoron from the burn chamber, and run this through the circulator directly.
• Option B: Create a separate, closed loop of phoron that is connected to thermal plates or heat exchange pipes inside the burn chamber, so that the separate phoron is heated without exchanging with the gas in the chamber.

In either case, the temperature transfer caused by the thermoelectric generator will eventually cause your hot loop to become cold, because your heat generated by a fire is finite, compared to the infinite coldness of space.

Consider these other designs when building your heating chamber:

• You can skip building an igniter by placing a lit welder or lighter inside the chamber before filling it with gas.
• Hooking the loop into the phoron miner and oxygen miner (with a gas mixer favoring phoron as 66% input) will allow your burn loop to run indefinitely. Remember that new phoron is not as hot as phoron that has filtered through the burn chamber, so it is better to inject the mix into your burn chamber instead of hooking the mix directly into your hot line.
• Hot loops, unlike cold loops, often require maintenance. Consider building in space or with a two-stage airlock so that you can enter the chamber to perform maintenance.
• Add a filter to remove CO2 buildup.
• Add a vent to clear the loop if the generator needs to be rebooted.