Is Thermoelectric Cooling a Good Idea?
It is amazing what electricity can do, we can produce light, melt metals and now even cool things down!. This devices use the Peltier effect to create a flux between materials, so that one side stays cool and the other one gets hot.
This picture illustrates the design of a Peltier device.
Where P and N are the different materiales used to transmit the current. This materials need a small thermal conductivity (high thermal resistance) so that they keep keep heat from going to the cold side.
Now you may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with computers? Well, the answer is that we can use this devices to cool computers down!
The advantages of thermoelectric cooling are many, such as low cost, almost no maintenance, and low power demand. So it would make sense to use one of this devices to cool a microprocessor down.
But the biggest disadvantage that this devices have is that you need to keep cooling the hot side so that the effectiveness of the device stays up. This means you need another cooling source to keep the difference between the hot side and the cold side. This can come in the form of liquid cooling or normal air cooling.
So in the end a combination of the two cooling processes is the best. Using a fan to keep the hot side cool, and using a forced convection process (air or liquid cooling). Our hope is that this technology can be explored even further to develop more effective applications. But for the time being, it is a complicated process and you can get the same results using another type of cooling for processors.
Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling#/media/File:Peltierelement.png
This picture illustrates the design of a Peltier device.
Thermoelectric Cooling Device.
Where P and N are the different materiales used to transmit the current. This materials need a small thermal conductivity (high thermal resistance) so that they keep keep heat from going to the cold side.
Now you may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with computers? Well, the answer is that we can use this devices to cool computers down!
The advantages of thermoelectric cooling are many, such as low cost, almost no maintenance, and low power demand. So it would make sense to use one of this devices to cool a microprocessor down.
But the biggest disadvantage that this devices have is that you need to keep cooling the hot side so that the effectiveness of the device stays up. This means you need another cooling source to keep the difference between the hot side and the cold side. This can come in the form of liquid cooling or normal air cooling.
So in the end a combination of the two cooling processes is the best. Using a fan to keep the hot side cool, and using a forced convection process (air or liquid cooling). Our hope is that this technology can be explored even further to develop more effective applications. But for the time being, it is a complicated process and you can get the same results using another type of cooling for processors.
Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling#/media/File:Peltierelement.png
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