Peltier basics
The typical maximum temperature difference between the hot side and the cold side of a TEC, referred to as delta Tmax, is around 70C. Does this mean that simply adding a peltier element between heatsink and heat source will cause the temperature of the cooled device to drop by 70C? No, that would be too good to be true. Two important factors must be considered: The specified maximum value of delta T only occurs when the peltier element does not transport any heat - a situation that does not occur in real-life cooling solutions. The actual delta T is a linear function of the power transferred through the thermal element, with negative slope. An example of such a function, for one particular TEC, is illustrated in the following graph, which is a stripped-down version of the graph found in part 2 of the Peltier Guide.
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Looking at the graph, you can see that, for example, if the peltier element will have a delta T of 55C if it has to move 10W of power (in the form of heat). You will also see that at one point - at 40 Watts in the case of this example - delta T becomes zero. This occurs when the TEC has reached its maximum thermal transfer capability (Qmax). So, our example peltier element cannot transport more than 40W. I admit that this graph is a bit oversimplified; in following parts of the Peltier Guide we will get into more detail. Imagine that you are cooling a CPU with a power usage of 35W, using a conventional heatsink. Will the temperature drop if you add our example peltier element between CPU and heatsink? No. For a simple reason: In addition to transporting heat, peltier elements also emit considerable amounts of heat (and thus use considerable amounts of electricity). So, the heatsink will have to dissipate substantially more heat than before, and will get much hotter. We will get into more detail about this issue in Part 3 of the Peltier Guide, where we analyze under which circumstances a peltier element is useful, and under which conditions you are better off with just a conventional heatsink. Peltier elements have very low efficiency. They will consume more power than they transport! Actual peltier elements may consume twice as much energy (in the form of electricity) as they transport (in the form of heat). So, if you are using a peltier element, the heatsink it is used with must be much more powerful than a heatsink used for cooling a heat source without peltier element. Do not confuse the maximum amount of power a peltier element can transport with the maximum amount of power usage of the peltier element. Some retailers sell "80W peltier element", without stating what this value actually means. This is misleading - what you want is a high transport capability, but a low power consumption. To help you decide what kind of peltier element you need for an overclocked CPU, you can find instructions for estimating power usage of overclocked CPUs here on The Heatsink Guide.
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Typical 40x40mm Peltier element This is a "padded" TEC Peltier elements come in various forms and shapes. Typically, they consist of a larger amount (e.g. 127) of thermocouples arranged in rectangular form, and packaged between two thin ceramic plates. Multi-stage modules, to reach higher delta T values, are also available, but less common. The commercial TEC unit of interest for PC geeks is a single stage device, about 4 - 6 mm thick and somewhere from 15 to 40 mm on a side. The TEC will have two wires coming out of it, if a voltage is applied to those wires, then a temperature difference across the two sides is achieved, if the polarity is reversed on the wires - then the temperature difference is also reversed. The TEC is placed in between the CPU/GPU and the heatsink with appropriate thermal interface materials (thermal grease). So one thing we might note is that if the voltage is applied in the wrong direction then the TEC will cool your heatsink and heat your CPU! Peltier elements come in padded and non-padded versions. On non-padded peltiers, the thermocouples are visible from the side. On padded peltier elements, you can only see the padding material (often silicon) from the side.
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After having focused on problems related to Peltier cooling, let's not forget about their biggest advantage: They allow cooling below ambient temperature, but unlike other cooling systems that allow this (vapor phase refrigeration), they are less expensive and more compact. Peltier elements are solid-state devices with no moving parts; they are extremely reliable and do not require any maintainance.
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