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Nano-engineered thermoelectrics enable scalable, compressor-free cooling

(www.jhuapl.edu)
119 points mcswell | 1 comments | 30 Jun 25 14:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | source
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petermcneeley ◴[03 Jul 25 02:26 UTC] No.44451036[source]▶
> the APL team achieved nearly 100% improvement in efficiency over traditional thermoelectric materials at room temperature

Peltier effect refrigeration has very low efficiencies (5%) so while this is an amazing accomplishment it will not replace other more mechanical cooling methods.

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1. johnnyjeans ◴[03 Jul 25 14:38 UTC] No.44455531[source]▶
I'm not sure why we would want to replace mechanical systems. A portable AC unit with 10,000 BTUs uses ~650wh these days, and it'll turn a 50m^2 apartment into an icebox. That's not much more than a flagship GPU pulls. This is also about the least efficient class of aircon you can get.

Sure less energy usage is always better, and if we could get the same out of mere single digit wh power draws that would be cool. But I don't think thermoelectrics are ever going to get us there.