Peltier chip

Does anybody have any experience working with Peltier chips?

Cool chips! :slight_smile:

I have not worked directly with them. I have seen them used in lasers to stabilize frequency drift.

If I understand right they are cool on one side and hot on the other.
Is it possible to reverside sides by reversing the voltage or do I have to physically rotate the chip?

It took me a few minutes to find someone who knew something about these chips.

When voltage is applied, one side of the chip gets cold and the other side is warm/hot.
You can get about a 40F temperature differential.

My “expert” said while the chips are marked with polarity, but the voltage can be
reversed to achieve the opposite effect. He believes that the chip is more
efficient when using the marked polarity. If you are heating with reversed
voltage then efficiency is not really any issue. With cooling efficiency counts.

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Thanks Mike!

It is a good start.

Can you also apply a heat differential and generate (small amounts of) power?

@ Architect - Check this link. The answer appears to be polarity.

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Thank you Davef!

@ ransomhall

Yes you can.

Bump.

Did you end up doing anything with a Peltier module. Architect?

I have need of a fridge-like device that can take about 30F degrees, max, out of a space around 3-4 cubic feet.

It’s for aging cheese (really) and I’ve got some vague ideas about a Gadgeteer Peltier fridge… Cerberus + temperature module + SFE Peltier module + OLED module + some button modules or a joystick + … I don’t know. A motor control module? A load module? Not sure. There’s an even vaguer notion of hosting this in part of a large Ikea Billy bookcase, which I’m convinced is not nearly as stupid as it sounds.

If somebody’s successfully used one of these things, especially if they’ve used it with a Gadgeteer setup, I’d love to hear about it…

Peltier devices aren’t very efficient. I believe there are commercial “refrigerators” that use them, but they’re usually the 1-2 pop can size.

For a 30F temperature differential in 4 cubic feet, you’d need quite a few, and you’d need lots of power to run them, and you’d end up with lots of waste heat, I think.