and clearly follows a downward pattern that results in heat flow through alternating thermoelectric and dielectric layers if a low thermal conductivity dielectric is selectively placed in a predetermined pattern for example fig1 and 2 thermally in series with the conductor the overall effective thermal conductance may be substantially lowered using transformation media techniques computational analysis and theoretical predictions the conductor and dielectric may be geometrically configured into a metamaterial where the material temperature gradient closely resembles that of any other typical temperature gradient of a regular material placed between hot and cold sources fig3 shows computational results for electrical current flow the electrical current is represented by the vector arrows of fig3 and confirms that electrical current flows through the thermoelectric material only as a result electrical conductivity and thermoelectric effects of the monocontinuous host material remain unchanged therefore the power factor pf remains unchanged the result is a thermoelectric metamaterial that behaves electrically and thermoelectrically like a single material yet thermally as a classical composite with greatly reduced thermal conductivity the reduced thermal conductivity results in a lower rate of heat flow into the metamaterial power conversion efficiency u03b7 is expressed as u03b7 p out q n where p out is the useable output power of the thermoelectric material and q in is the heat input to the thermoelectric material subsequently the ability to lower.