Insulation is great if your goal is to keep the heat from escaping. With this solution, the goal is usually the exact opposite.
For example, you don't wrap your laptop in a blanket to keep it nice and cozy. Likewise you don't wrap insulation around the motor block in an ICE vehicle. And if you pump coolant around through pipes, the whole point is to radiate out the heat so that it cools down. That heat is actually a problem that you are trying to get rid off.
The example of a heating pipe in the article is a bit unfortunate of course. Isolating those would be a good idea. Unless they are interior pipes in which case the heating system heating the house would not be that big of a deal.
> Likewise you don't wrap insulation around the motor block in an ICE vehicle.
Well... for every rule there is an exception I guess, there was a Mercedes demonstration vehicle that used a modified diesel engine without a coolant loop and insulated head to keep the heat in the engine. It never made it to production due to cost but the thing was ridiculously efficient.
you still need to radiate the heat you produce; the device cold side heats up during operation, up to the point where the conversio stop, so you're going to have to cool it.
besides, water in a ice engine need to be cooled down fast, at the rate these device extract temperature from the sources, you're going to have to need a huge surface area being extracted, or two set of radiators - one to control the circuit temperature, the other to cool the generators.
these device application are a lot narrower than one might expect.
For example, you don't wrap your laptop in a blanket to keep it nice and cozy. Likewise you don't wrap insulation around the motor block in an ICE vehicle. And if you pump coolant around through pipes, the whole point is to radiate out the heat so that it cools down. That heat is actually a problem that you are trying to get rid off.
The example of a heating pipe in the article is a bit unfortunate of course. Isolating those would be a good idea. Unless they are interior pipes in which case the heating system heating the house would not be that big of a deal.