this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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The efficiency of Peltiers in regards to heat moved per watts spent is actually kind of crap. And the hotter their hot side gets, the worse that efficiency becomes. Overclockers attempting (often in vain) to use them for sub-ambient-temperature cooling for computer components have known this for a long time.
Even a dinky compressor based refrigerant system is more efficient at moving heat than a Peltier of equivalent-ish total wattage.
That's before getting into the details specific to the crappy tiny Peltier cooler in the video, which runs at 100% of its duty cycle all the time and has functionally zero insulation, unlike an actual refrigerator.
I have a Peltier based car cooler, and that's basically the only use case for these things that makes sense: Short term storage of things where the actual temperature achieved isn't that critical, and which needs to remain light enough that you can easily carry it. Basically, just treat it as a regular cooler that if you play your cards right you won't have to add any ice to.
aren't you still limited by ambient air temp because the hot side of the Peltier needs to be cooled by air anyway?
I don't really even see the point of that to be honest. if we're talking short periods anyway, a nicely insulated cooler with ice packs (cooled by a heat-pump freezers) is way better imo.
You can certainly get subambient. Put some electrical current through a Peltier and one side gets cold, and the other side gets hot. Use the cold side to cool your components, and get the heat away from the hot side, and you can make it work.
It can be a bit tricky. The hot side is right next to the cold side and it gets really hot, so if you can't get the heat away it'll leak right back over. Peltiers use a lot of power so you need a beefy power supply, and that'll be another source of heat. Assuming you can figure that all out, you also have to be careful that the cold side doesn't get too cold or you get condensation. Electrical components tend to not like moisture very much.
I remember people experimented around with it back in early-mid 2000's. General consensus nowadays seems to be is that it's not terribly effective or practical and not worth the trouble.