[Tfug] peltier?

[johngalt1]

Going for quiet?

Some people have a name for that reservoir thing with a
heatsink. It is called a radiator.

I have been told that the idea of a heatsink is to increase
surface area of the hot thing. This increased surface area
allows the heat to transfer to the mass surrounding it.

To assist this process, sometimes people use fans to move
air mass over heatsinks. (whether they use liquid cooling at
the heat source or not)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sean Warburton" <>
To: "Tucson Free Unix Group" <tfug at tfug.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2007 7:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Tfug] peltier?


> oh, I never even though of sticking a heatsink on the
> resivour. Good idea. I
> will do that and run a CPU burn-in test for a couple hours
> and watch the
> temp. I never watched the temp of the coolant, but I felt
> the tubes, and
> they were hot, so it was not cooling off quick enough to
> be of any use. Ill
> let you know how the heatsink idea works. Thanks,
>     Sean
>
>
> On 9/28/07, John Gruenenfelder <> wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 27, 2007 at 05:09:25PM -0700, Sean Warburton
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >Now, I heard of an interesting physical property called
>> >the peltier
>> effect,
>> >which is (as I understand it) the direct conversion of
>> >electricity into
>> >temperature changes.  This makes sense, because  when I
>> >overclock my CPU,
>> I
>> >force more power than normal into it, and a higher
>> >temperature is
>> achieved.
>> >This system must work the other way, where it can make
>> >things cold. Some
>> >research yielded a product that looks like a ceramic
>> >plate and one side
>> gets
>> >cold while the other gets hot when a current is applied.
>> >Furthermore, the
>> >temperature difference is dependent on the ambient
>> >temperature, right?
>>
>> Actually, your CPU generates heat as a waste product when
>> transistors (all
>> the
>> many millions of them in the chip) switch off and on and
>> some due to
>> resistance in the tiny wires.  The peltier effect is
>> fundamentally
>> different,
>> but in broad terms, yes, you supply a current and the
>> plate starts
>> cooling.
>>
>> But, there are a number of reasons why you don't see them
>> in PCs very
>> often.
>> One is that they are very inefficient, no more than 10%,
>> so you're wasting
>> a
>> lot of electricity with them.  And waste generally means
>> waste heat.
>>
>> Also, they can work *too* well.  The amount of heat
>> transfer depends on
>> how
>> much current you give the device, but you can get one
>> side *very* cold and
>> the
>> other side *very* hot.  The problem is that the cold side
>> can form frost
>> if
>> you're not careful.  You definitely don't want that.
>> I've read that some
>> people will make an airtight foam seal around whatever
>> that put the cold
>> side
>> on, but that will depend on how your cooler is designed.
>>
>> And then once the heat is off the CPU and onto the other
>> side of the
>> cooler,
>> you still need to get rid of it ASAP.  I think most
>> people who have gone
>> to
>> the trouble of using peltiers use water cooling for this.
>>
>> As for your continuing heat issues, your probably on to
>> something with
>> regards
>> to the reservoir size.  Have you tried putting a
>> thermometer in the water
>> to
>> see how warm it is?  The more it rises above room
>> temperature the less
>> heat
>> its going to remove from your CPU.  Alternatively, again
>> depending on
>> design,
>> you might try a reservoir with more surface area or
>> putting a heatsink on
>> the
>> reservoir itself.
>>
>>
>> --
>> --John Gruenenfelder    Research Assistant, UMass Amherst
>> student
>>                        Systems Manager, MKS Imaging
>> Technology, LLC.
>> Try Weasel Reader for PalmOS  --  http://gutenpalm.sf.net
>> "This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in
>> the blood
>> of my enemies!"
>>        --Sam of Sam & Max
>>
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