Patent ID: 7935882

Claim:
A self-powered food heater, comprising: A) a burner unit for burning a fluid fuel, said burner unit comprising an electric powered fuel pump and an electric powered blower, B) a fire box for receiving hot exhaust from said burner, C) a tank adapted to contain water and packaged food, said tank defining heat transfer surfaces through which heat from said burner is transferred to water in said tank, D) a plurality of thermoelectric modules, E) a plurality of module cover plates, F) electronic controls for controlling said self powered food heater, G) a plurality of compression frames, each frame comprising compression elements, for compressing each of said thermoelectric modules between one of the module cover plates and a portion of said heat transfer surfaces of said tank, wherein said plurality of thermoelectric modules provides sufficient electric power to power said fuel pump, said blower and said electronic controls, and H) one or more insulating plates positioned on with respect to a plurality of the thermoelectric modules between a hot side of each of the plurality of modules and a module cover plate in order to reduce module hot side temperatures to below safe operating temperatures for the modules.