Thermoelectrics are candidate niche electrical generator devices for energy management. At present, scientists are more focused on thermoelectric (TE) material development, but the TE module design procedure is still in a relatively virgin state. One of the most well-known methods is the reduced current approach (RCA) for TE module design, where the same current is induced through the p and n legs of the thermoelectric generator (TEG). The current density of each element is manipulated by changing the area of both legs. This technique leads to a TE module architecture based on the most efficient configuration of both p and n legs. In the current paper, we apply an extended version of this technique, to show how a TE module with a higher volumetric power density can be designed, compared to the original RCA. Our studies indicate that for some combinations of p and n material properties, optima yielding significant material savings without compromising power output can be determined. The current study has been directed towards obtaining high power output from high-temperature TEGs, rather than focusing on efficiency enhancement. (C) 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim