Heater mechanism including a light compact thermoelectric converter

A self powered heater system for heating an enclosure comprising:

• a housing;
• air means for supplying air into the housing including a first electric motor for moving the air;
• fuel means for delivering fuel from a fuel storage container to the housing including a second electric motor for pumping the fuel;
• combustion means for mixing the fuel delivered by said fuel means and the air supplied by said air means, and for igniting the mixture of fuel and air to obtain hot combustion gases;
• thermoelectric converter means mounted in the housing for generating electricity by receiving the hot combustion gases and extracting heat therefrom, said thermoelectric converter means having a structure to allow both series and parallel heat flow paths;
• cooling means for circulating a liquid coolant adjacent to said thermoelectric converter means to remove heat from said thermoelectric converter means, thereby heating said liquid coolant;
• an enclosure heat transfer means for blowing air over said liquid coolant to heat the air and for directing the air into an enclosure, said enclosure heat transfer means including a third electric motor;
• and
• battery means, connected to the first, second, and third electric motors and said thermoelectric converter means, for operating the first, second, and third electric motors during a start-up period of the heater system and for receiving a charging current to recharge said battery means from said thermoelectric converter means after the expiration of said start-up period, said thermoelectric converter means also providing electricity to operate said first, second, and third electric motors after the expiration of said start-up period.