let's learn why Peltier devices are not actually very cool in this new video youtu.be/CnMRePtHMZY
YouTube video by Technology Connections
Love a good dismantling of false economy I thought "these would be great in space" at first then realized that energy has to go somewhere, and then you did the big reveal of the other side. The tyranny of thermodynamics.
The one device I have with one of these is a camera for astrophotography. Fewer challenges compared to hanging a compressor off a telescope, and we only need the sensor itself to hit the lower temperatures.
Ah man, can't watch yet due to in-public-no-headphones-disease I actually thought about building a little doohickey out of these once, using basically this and a PC liquid cooling rig. My understanding is that they basically only work as a supplement to thermal paste...
It was highly entertaining (the part about your full size fridge had me laughing out loud) and confirmed a vague impression I had that Peltier cells were not very good aside from some niche scientific uses.
Hey I noticed a small and incredibly insignifictant mistake where at 17:41 you say that the refrigerant for the cube minifridge is isobutane while the label on the back indicates cyclopentane (Ex.: 17:21)
Ultimately the physics problem with Peltiers is they need to have high electrical conductivity while having low thermal conductivity, and it's hard get both of these in one material (since electrons/holes carry heat and charge)
The noise I made when you turned it over and I saw just *how* hot it gets
And not mentioned: even with "no moving parts", the thermal cycling is pretty bad for their longevity. My one Peltier device, a small wine fridge, just stopped cooling one day. Compressor chillers have all outlasted it.
We have a Koolatron for portable cooling (or warming) and that is a nice device for that purpose. Was also quite handy for car camping when we had a power site.
I would have killed for this video about ten years ago. People online thought they could solve any problem with them.