Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!josephc
From: josephc@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Joseph I. Chiu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Peltier effect device
Keywords: cooling
Message-ID: <1990Dec15.014756.22856@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 15 Dec 90 01:47:56 GMT
References: <1990Dec14.213730.10078@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <1804@gold.gvg.tek.com>
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 42

grege@gold.gvg.tek.com (Greg Ebert) writes:

>>I hope this has not been asked before.  On the December issue of Byte (p.132),
>>there is a short article on an interesting cooling device, which can be
>>mounted on a CPU and is able to cool the chip down to 0 degree centigrade.
>>This device, according to Byte, is a Peltier effect device, which is
>>"a thermoelectric cooling system based on the principle that passing a current
>>between two physically connected, dissimilar materials produces cooling on one
>>side and heat on the other."  I am not quite sure if I know what this
>>sentense is talking about.  Can someone knowledgeable elaborate this a little

>The Peltier Effect is significant in an Antimony/Bismuth junction. The process
>is reversible: you can measure an emf when the junction is heated (its a few
>millivolts), or if a potential is applied across the junction, electrons
>will absorb (thermal) energy while traversing the junction. I know zilch about
>solid-state physics, but I think it's the result of differing work-functions
>of the 2 materials; ie, there is an 'energy gap' at the junction, and the
>electrons with sufficient thermal energy can cross the gap and get whisked
>away because of the externally applied emf. As one thermally active electron
>leaves town, another follows behind which results in a net flux of electrons
>with higher thermal energy away from the junction, hence cooling is
>observed.

>Add a bunch of these together and you can soak-up a few watts of heat.

In other words, it is (in big oversimplification) a refrigerator.  What it does
is it absorbs heat in one plate, and transfers the energy to the other plate,
releasing it in the form of heat again.   You can sort of think of it as shoving
the heat from one side of the device to the other.

Speaking of refrigerators, I have heard the there is a peltier-effect fridge
that can hold a six-pack.  Anyone know if this is true, and if so, what
the availability is?  ( I read this in a magazine somewhere... )

-Joseph

--
josephc@coil.caltech.edu               ...Just another lost soul in the universe

-- 
--
josephc@coil.caltech.edu               ...Just another lost soul in the universe