Powering a Peltier?

[RadeonHDx]

SO today my peltier arrived and I don't really know how to power it (silly me for buying before I knew what to do with it ^_^). I've tried putting it on my molex 12v but I can't tell if it's actually working?! I have it powered and sitting with what I suspect is the cold side facing up with the hot side on my old titan CPU cooler with its 92mm fan straped with zip ties to it.

Just a picture of it how it is right now...



I figured I should say its a cheapo one from eBay rated for 60w on 12v 5A. I was hoping someone could tell me how to power it through a 6 pin? I heard that this can provide the max voltage and amperage that it would need to function fully .

-Joe

 

[Xrqute]

Can't you get specs or a wiring diagram from the manufacturer?

 

[RadeonHDx]

Well it comes like this and its kind of been adopted by PC modders and wasn't specifically built for this purpose but I'm now pretty certain that its dead because its about as cold as the cooler underneath it is and the hot side isnt any warmer than the cold side.

 

[Xrqute]

Well it comes like this and its kind of been adopted by PC modders and wasn't specifically built for this purpose but I'm now pretty certain that its dead because its about as cold as the cooler underneath it is and the hot side isnt any warmer than the cold side.

Well that's shit lol.

Maybe there is something else amiss that you're not aware of.

 

[Remmy]

I think the naming of hot and cold side is a bit ambiguous. I interpreted it as the cold side being the side which absorbs heat (from the CPU, say), and the hot side being the one that you remove heat from (via a heatsink, for example). Your interpretation seems to be the opposite way round, which is actually correct?

Edit: Oh no, sorry I misread your post.

 

[RadeonHDx]

I think the naming of hot and cold side is a bit ambiguous. I interpreted it as the cold side being the side which absorbs heat (from the CPU, say), and the hot side being the one that you remove heat from (via a heatsink, for example). Your interpretation seems to be the opposite way round, which is actually correct?

Edit: Oh no, sorry I misread your post.

Yea sorry I was kind of half paying attention while I was typing. This is pretty annoying that the first one I get is DOA and the only ones are either cheap from china or £40 for a decent same wattage one. Strangely enough this one was one of 2 that I could find from the UK and now I'm going to buy the other (cheaper) one and hope that isn't DOA.

TH+BH I don't even care if it just worked for a day, even a few hours if it just allowed me to see how it worked and what kind of physical heat (not in watts but C) in outputted and what it took to cool it.

I'm serious about making this work and possibly making my rig the first of many to incorporate peltiers into rigs.

-Joe

EDIT: If anyone saw my diagrams of what I was hoping to achieve in the Aquatuning 5 Year anniversary competition I showed that I was going to try and incorporate a peltier (or 2) into a dual bay res and have it cool the water on the inside of the res while having the hotside cooled by the H60 that I'm currently using to struggle to cool my 8320.

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

Can someone explain me what the hell a peltier is?
I don't want detailed things, because I can find wall of texts off wikipedia
Thanks ^_^

 

[RadeonHDx]

Can someone explain me what the hell a peltier is?
I don't want detailed things, because I can find wall of texts off wikipedia
Thanks ^_^

A short answer will tell you what it does but wont really explain why (TBH I don't really know why, although I have a vague idea)

A peltier is a TEC, a thermoelectric cooler, which uses a power source to transfer the heat from the cold side to the hot side faster than is possible by usual means, the power also allows the peltier to cool lower than ambient temperatures and can therefore be used to cool things.

This was probably a bad explanation but its the idea.

If you want a better understanding, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

So you put it on another cooler (radiator, cooler fins in order to dissipate heat by heating it?)
I fucking love thermodynamic laws

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

Peltier coolers are VERY VERY unreliable. It is not uncommon to get one not working and or have it die months later.

 

[RadeonHDx]

Peltier coolers are VERY VERY unreliable. It is not uncommon to get one not working and or have it die months later.

Yea I've read of the unreliability of them which is why when I get a custom loop (might be very soon ) I will mount the peltier to the reservoir so that I have much more peace of mind should the peltier fail. I know this is no where near as efficient as the peltier being directly applied to the CPU but it makes for redundancy and since I'm trying to do all this for as cheap as possible I'd rather have slightly higher temps then a dead chip .

Just a diagram showing what I hope to achive.



-Joe

 

[Genesius]

I have used a few of these before, not in a pc though. You can find them in the backs of those 12v beer fridges and coolers.
A lot arrive DOA. When I first got some, I instantly fried 2 without knowing just because they heat up so quickly. You need to dissipate that heat really well and then watch out for condensation. You can buy cheap ones to experiment with from China. I wouldn't use it in my rig as they are very inefficient and id constantly be checking to see if it had failed. I think it would be ok for an benched rig but I wouldn't use it 24/7. They eat watts and fail all the time, its just a case of when. If you do use it, put a thermal alarm on your WC.

 

[shambles1980]

the only way id use one of these for cooling is if i had a metal res then id strap the cold side to that. and have a heat sink on the hot side.

if you get a good one then they do work pretty well really. id probably be more inclined to pull one out of a 12v refrigerator rather than buy the ebay ones.

the heat sink and fan used on these things is pretty large to be honest compared to the size of the little doo dah,
it should just wire up directly to 12v though (unless its not 12v) and you should easily be able to tell which is the hot side. i would persoanlly sandwich it between 2 heat sinks and then power up. shouldnt take more than 10 mins to easily tell which one is hotter than the other ones.

but honestly like i said i would only consider using one as a method of cooling down the water in my res rather than any form of direct cooling for a component.
if the fan fails on your heat sink those little jobby doos will create more heat than they cool down "a lot more heat"
if you stop the fan on a 12v fridge and come back 20 mins later the inside of that fridge will be like an oven. so if your doing that to your components its really not a great thing.