The spin Seebeck effect is a newly discovered phenomenon that if harnessed, could result in a significant improvement of the efficiency of thermoelectric energy generators. In order to assess the feasibility of the spin Seebeck effect as a route to harvest waste energy we propose investigating the voltage generated for a variety of contacts designed to minimise cost and maximise efficiency (i.e., the spin Hall angle). Spin polarised neutron reflectivity will provide us with complementary measurements that enable determination of the spin polarisation of the film as well as surface sensitive magnetic ordering and disorder at the interface. This is especially important as the influence of the interface on the collection of the spin polarised current due to theinverse spin Hall effect is still not well understood.