I am interested in adaptive cooling for spectral photometers and radiometers used in a field phenotyping situation. Peltier thermoelectric cooling appears attractive. Yet my initial testing is using lots of power inefficiently. Approaches have been direct press to cold plates, air exchange with circulation, closed and open box, thermostats, no water.
Wanting to support a 60 watt field spectrometer at a steady and safe operational 30 C target in a 45 C environment using TEC.
Cooling with the peltier element is not effective becouse of Joule losses in the system. Intensive cooling is achieved by putting a few of the elements arranged in series. It also needs to reduce thermal resistance by using thermal paste on surfaces and increase heat flux by using the entire useful surface of the element.
Good luck with your project
Hi Matthew, generally peltiers ARE rather power hungry and you can expect to have to put in well over twice the amount of power that you want to remove ie to have 60W of cooling you would be looking at something like 150W of peltier.
There is actually a lot of stuff you can steal from the PC world for a cooling system. The small water radiators, and water cooled chip heat-sinks are ideal for a system. You could use these to remove as much as the heat load as possible, and then do more precise adjustments with the peltier. Although it also depends somewhat on what the ambient operating temperature is.
"Heat pipes" are also a wonderful way of transferring heat.
Thank you very much Dr. Radivojevic and Dr. Denby, I really appreciate the guidance and encouragement offered.
Indeed I found your comments regarding the inefficiency range, including ambient condition, to be poignant.
Moreover the PC world cooling system components are great, and just like you said Dr. Denby, the water cooled are best (some users are worried about liquids) and heat pipes lent wondrous result.
I have a note with more detail on adapting the technology as a phenotyping field method supporting proximal radiometric sensing.
Method Peltier TEC for field phenotyping
In the low Maricopa Arizona desert we can experience high temperatures which cause plant stress. This electric cooling may be very useful for scientists wanting to capture in-field plant stress reactions.
I am grateful for the wisdom and goodwill of the RS community.
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