Peltier pulls ~ $10 shipped

[onelove]

TechZen posted at bulky billfold that BGMicro has peltier pulls for $7.55 plus a couple bucks shipping USPS.

BG Micro:
These peltiers come in pairs. They are DT6-6. They operate on 6Vdc@5.6A and are tied in series, so you can either use them on 12V@5.6A or cut them apart and use them independently. Removed from equipment. You get the pair for one price. ACS1387.....

techzen gives some links, which I blatantly rip off here:
arstechnica
peltier-info.com

I don't know much about this area, but people: YMMV since these are pulls, condensation will wreck your computer, mounting backwards will wreck your computer, peltier failure will wreck your computer, [EDIT: using too weak a peltier will wreck your computer] so be careful out there.

Hopefully some of our knowledgeable folks here can chime in whether this is hot or not & give some advice to us would-bes and wanna-bes.

 

[modedepe]

"wreck your computer" lol really reassuring..I've wanted to try one of these for a while though, and the price doesn't seem bad..

 

[Princeman]

I ran a peltier for a couple of months and they are incredible. Very hot on one side and freezing on the other. I stopped using it because it is hard to control. Also the change of temperature is so rapid that some say the ceramic on the chip will crack from the sudden changes in temperature. Also because the are working full blast all the time they work fine with a machine that's going full blast (e.g., video games) but when you want to idle, the thing is still cooling like a monster and the temp really drops. Just one nontechnical opinion, based on some reading and personal experience.

 

[RIGorous1]

Originally posted by: Princeman
I ran a peltier for a couple of months and they are incredible. Very hot on one side and freezing on the other. I stopped using it because it is hard to control. Also the change of temperature is so rapid that some say the ceramic on the chip will crack from the sudden changes in temperature. Also because the are working full blast all the time they work fine with a machine that's going full blast (e.g., video games) but when you want to idle, the thing is still cooling like a monster and the temp really drops. Just one nontechnical opinion, based on some reading and personal experience.

The man speaks the truth ... beer for you
:beer:

 

[weepul]

what are peltier pulls?

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[froinlaven]

Sounds too French and cooky. Which go together quite nicely I might add.

 

[RU482]

Originally posted by: Princeman
I ran a peltier for a couple of months and they are incredible. Very hot on one side and freezing on the other. I stopped using it because it is hard to control. Also the change of temperature is so rapid that some say the ceramic on the chip will crack from the sudden changes in temperature. Also because the are working full blast all the time they work fine with a machine that's going full blast (e.g., video games) but when you want to idle, the thing is still cooling like a monster and the temp really drops. Just one nontechnical opinion, based on some reading and personal experience.

Hmmm, how hard would it be to write an app that would vary a pulse width on a serial port relative to the CPU load? Use the pulse width variation to control the voltage of the peltier Hmmm, sounds like a labview project with a little circuit design

 

[damonpip]

Will from what I figure, If you use those in series they will draw 67 watts. I think most CPUs need at least a 100-120 watt peltier to cool them. Too low of wattage can actually cause the CPU to become hotter than without a peltier at all.

 

[jono]

Originally posted by: redly1<br
Hmmm, how hard would it be to write an app that would vary a pulse width on a serial port relative to the CPU load? Use the pulse width variation to control the voltage of the peltier Hmmm, sounds like a labview project with a little circuit design

Use the Supervisory Toolbox, the VI is already done for you there

 

[onelove]

Originally posted by: damonpip
Will from what I figure, If you use those in series they will draw 67 watts. I think most CPUs need at least a 100-120 watt peltier to cool them. Too low of wattage can actually cause the CPU to become hotter than without a peltier at all.

hmm, maybe good for building into a cupholder w/ a warm/cold option, then?

Can they do anything if you don't use them in series? (I mean anything other than the aforementioned cupholder project)

 

[Dran]

Originally posted by: damonpip
Will from what I figure, If you use those in series they will draw 67 watts. I think most CPUs need at least a 100-120 watt peltier to cool them. Too low of wattage can actually cause the CPU to become hotter than without a peltier at all.

Pelts of this wattage are more suitable for cooling other chips, like the northbridge/southbridge, vid mem (insane, considering the number of pelts you'd need, but definitely a project for someone), MOSFETs and such. Lots of non-CPU chips that could use better cooling than they get by the manufacturer (anyone else seen the thermal pics of motherboards and vid cards in use? downright amazing how much heat some of these chips can generate). Pair these low-wattage pelts with an AT PSU modded to fit into a CD-ROM enclosure, and you'd have a pretty respectable cooling system, as long as there's sufficient airflow to keep the heatsinks from dumping heat back into the pelts.

 

[huesmann]

Couldn't you slap one of these puppies on a GPU?

 

[Dran]

Originally posted by: huesmann
Couldn't you slap one of these puppies on a GPU?

Low end to mid-range. I wouldn't use one of these on the newer/top end chips unless it's going to be used exclusively for 2D and video playback.

 

[fargus]

hmm, maybe good for building into a cupholder w/ a warm/cold option, then?

Already been done:

Peltier Beer Cooler Mug

 

[onelove]

Originally posted by: fargus

hmm, maybe good for building into a cupholder w/ a warm/cold option, then?

Already been done:

Peltier Beer Cooler Mug

THAT is a good use of education. Love that link.

 

[salfter]

Originally posted by: onelove

Originally posted by: damonpip
Will from what I figure, If you use those in series they will draw 67 watts. I think most CPUs need at least a 100-120 watt peltier to cool them. Too low of wattage can actually cause the CPU to become hotter than without a peltier at all.

hmm, maybe good for building into a cupholder w/ a warm/cold option, then?

I looked into using Peltiers to build a fermentation cabinet for my homebrew...figured I'd put some big-ass heatsinks on each side, with the cold side facing inside. Most of what I've seen says they're not as efficient as standard refrigeration techniques when you're dealing with volumes of more than 1-2 cu. ft. (you'd need somewhere around 4-6 cu. ft. to accomodate a 6.5-gal. carboy or bucket), but these are cheap enough that maybe it'd be worth a shot. If it worked, at least it'd free up the fridge to hold kegs of finished :beer:.

BTW, here's a datasheet.

 

[GermyBoy]

What are you using these things for? Seems useless to me...

 

[huesmann]

Originally posted by: fargus

hmm, maybe good for building into a cupholder w/ a warm/cold option, then?

Already been done:

Peltier Beer Cooler Mug

Crazy Norwegians!

 

[SharkyTM]

you cold (get it ?) really use these on then.brodge and s.bridge

 

[Ecliptic]

I tried a peltier once and it killed my cpu. No lost though as it was an old celeron stitting around. Make sure you have a huge heatsink, cause if the heatsink isnt strong enough to cool the wattage produced by the peltier + cpu, the cold side of the peltier will get hot really fast... which is bad news for the cpu.

 

[Gustavus]

This isn't exactly the right place for a technical comment, but in view of the several comments about a Peltier junction cooling a CPU too quickly or being too cold it is a trivial matter to make a current regulator that controls the temperature. These are widely used to cool the CCD sensor in amateur astronomy and circuits for doing this are easily found on net. In astronomical applications it is vital to hold the CCD temperature constant so the controllers work very well. I used to use Peltier coolers for maximum overclocking but with the advances in CPU speed don't bother anymore.

 

[DurocShark]

I had an old 80w peltier on my Celly 266/400 that worked great.

Modern CPUs disperse way more heat though. For $10 it might be worth getting just for sh!ts and giggles.

 

[huesmann]

Prolly more sh!ts than giggles...unless you like to giggle at your sh!ts.

Hey, and who doesn't?

 

[SolderSucker]

I ran a water cooled peltier on my p3 700 chip. It worked pretty well. However, I don't like the constant power consumption of peltiers. They are the cheap man's method of extreme cooling for cpus. Given todays cpu speeds, I can't justify using an extra 80-100 watts of power just to try to cool the cpu. Also, the heat output will be the combination of the peltier and cpu. This is fine in the winter but means your air conditioning has to work harder to remove the heat from your room.

 

[InverseOfNeo]

Originally posted by: huesmann
Prolly more sh!ts than giggles...unless you like to giggle at your sh!ts.

Hey, and who doesn't?

LOL