peltier junction

Want to just shoot the breeze? Forum 42 is the place!

Moderator:Moderators

Post Reply
beeps8
Posts:23
Joined:Wed Dec 31, 2008 1:00 am
Location:Wisconsin
peltier junction

Post by beeps8 » Mon Oct 17, 2011 7:59 pm

Does anyone have experience in using peltier junction as a heatsink?

User avatar
jdmlight
Posts:795
Joined:Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:17 pm
Steam ID:jdmlight
Location:A boring suburb of Chicago.

Re: peltier junction

Post by jdmlight » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:12 pm

beeps8 wrote:Does anyone have experience in using peltier junction as a heatsink?
Well. A peltier junction doesn't eliminate the need for a heatsink. It makes one side of it cold and the other hot in proportional amounts. So if you're using the cold side of it to cool off something that's hot (like a processor), you need a pretty hefty-sized heatsink to make it work.

In short, they're not magic. You still need a way of dissipating heat on the hot side. These are often used with liquid cooling in PC's as an effective way to transfer the heat from the processor to the liquid flowing through the peltier junction.

They work the other way too, in fact, they're often used in those beverage coolers you can plug in to your car.
--John (and please call me John, it's really weird to be called by my username)
Fight MS Paint abominations! If you don't have a camera, go here, and pick something 3 megapixels or higher.

beeps8
Posts:23
Joined:Wed Dec 31, 2008 1:00 am
Location:Wisconsin

Re: peltier junction

Post by beeps8 » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:22 pm

Would the heatsink need to be larger or smaller than the original? What temp difference should I expect using?

User avatar
jdmlight
Posts:795
Joined:Thu Dec 27, 2007 11:17 pm
Steam ID:jdmlight
Location:A boring suburb of Chicago.

Re: peltier junction

Post by jdmlight » Mon Oct 17, 2011 9:36 pm

beeps8 wrote:Would the heatsink need to be larger or smaller than the original? What temp difference should I expect using?
Informative link is informative.
--John (and please call me John, it's really weird to be called by my username)
Fight MS Paint abominations! If you don't have a camera, go here, and pick something 3 megapixels or higher.

User avatar
jaqiefox
Posts:53
Joined:Tue Sep 13, 2011 8:30 pm
Location:127.0.0.1 (jct cty, OR)
Contact:

Re: peltier junction

Post by jaqiefox » Tue Oct 18, 2011 12:13 am

the basic rules of thumb for peltiers:
1) if you go beyond their capacity, they become very efficient heaters of both sides of themselves.
2) for every watt you want to cool, you will need another watt of cooling capacity beyond that (60 watt cpu? 120 watt cooling for peltier!)
3) you must make everything on the cool side completely airtight and insulated, or you will get condensation and thus electric shorting of your cpu and motherboard. fast.
4) they suck power at 12-15v... a lot of it.

In short, it's just not worth it. Cool the cpu well with water or heatpipe based air cooling and you will get better results for the same cash money spent in the end.
Jaqie Fox, Genuine girl techie | http://foxtecha.com

Post Reply