If you run gel in fridge it is best to have power supply at room temperature and have leads going into fridge. I ruined a power supply by moving in and out of fridge --> condensation fried the electronics. Just a warning.

Hey that idea was mulling since a long time in my mind after hundreds of my gels have literally "smiled" on me.....anyway good initiative mate....i thought about using thermoelectric coolers (TEC) i.e peltier blocks for the study. Anyway for now we use ice packs to keep the unit cool so i don't think there would be a technical issue....Keep us updated about your endeavors. Seems to be interesting.

wouldn't it be easier to run the gel in the cold room or fridge - pretty standard

I think that electrophoresis chambers are made from PMMA (acrylic glass), which is a poor heat conductor. 15mm PMMA a lid on top, the electrophoresis chamber is a thermoisolated box.

I've put one of our very small electrophoresis chambers directly in an ice bath and ran it with 120 V, 40 more than usually applied (and where it's limits are). It did a good job, but it is messy and unsafe for both user and product. I have heard of the chambers where you can fit a cooling pack inside, but as long as they keep charging a few hundred bucks for a piece of PMMA, changing to other chambers is not a reasonable option.

As soon as I find a peristaltic pump, I will put a closed cooling circuit inside the chamber and give it another try.

If you run gel in fridge it is best to have power supply at room temperature and have leads going into fridge. I ruined a power supply by moving in and out of fridge --> condensation fried the electronics. Just a warning.

You need to run very thin gels. Even with cooling, the surfaces next to the plates will be cooler while the middle of the gel will be warmer so you will get 'smiles' perpendicular to the direction you view the gels making the bands appear fuzzier .

You might be able to decrease buffer concentration to give higher voltages at lower amps-giving lower power/ heat.

PAGE gel chambers often have cooling possibilities by in- and outlets for (sometimes cooled) water that flows around the back of the gel (in an extra compartment of course).

Anyway for normal agarose gel chambers I'd use a different buffer, i.e. lithium or sodium borate instead of TAE (as the EDTA short circuits the system somehow and creates heat). Lithium borate buffer don't have EDTA and you can use with much more voltage (depending on gel percentage) and you get sharper bands too.

I would recomend that you do the same for wet blotting chambers if you are looking to market your idea. As far as I understand blotting causes more heat, as it runs at higher amp's. We always pack our blotting tanks in ice and run with very cold transferr buffer. So a system which continually cools these tanks will save a lot of time and effort.

Actually Biorad makes tanks with a built-in cooling system, either cooling coil or ice pack. Or if you have a system that is different from Biorad, you can start using cold buffers and run everything in a cold room or in a fridge that is dedicated only for electrophoresis, put the thank inside and run the cables under the gasket to the power supply outside.It is better to put two strips of tape between the door and the fridge body to ensure that the door is actually closed and minimize heat transfer from the outside. I used both systems and they are just fine. Remember only that if you use the power supply inside a cold room you ave to allow for a few hours of drying down at room temperature before reusing it, because you will get condensation on the cold electrical circuits once they are exposed to room temperature and humidity