Using Peltier plates to increase efficiecy?

[hyperballad]

This is the question that brings me to your forum,

I am no engineer, electrician, etc... I claim nothing but a selective common sense and an equally selective, "fickle," range of interests... I say this in hopes to dissuade mockery of my ignorance...

The Question: ~ I've skimmed the basics of panels; make-up, design, voltage, etc...
I noticed that the heating of the panel itself seems to be a major issue in the efficiency of the panels. Having made a few custom computers.. I had to deal with overheating a lot. I found a Simple a Cheap solution... Peltier plates.

If you don't know what they are.. its Really simple.. here's a link:

http://www.dansdata.com/pelt.htm

......... it's a ceramic plate... (looks like a transverse cut of a cardboard box. like this
_ _ _ _ _ _
I_I_I_I_I_I_I .. bad drawing.. but each side of the plate gets either hot or cold. Which I thought was the beauty of it.. cause if you could stick the heat side on say... the Roof of a house... and the cold side as the backing of a panel.. then you would have a self-sustaining cooling system for the panels.. and thus improve efficiency.... that's the beauty of the Peltier.. the hotter the hot side gets.. the cooler the cool side gets.. so it would also be self-regulating...

..... here's where I get over my head and am looking for advice. crit. collab. Whatever

...... I need to know specifics regarding the durability of panels (silicon and non)
Basically I wanna know if I can go straight to testing this Hypothesis? Or, has it
already been tried? Being used even?

..... My main concern is this: I question if the panels can be fixed to something that not only could potentially be emitting freezing temps. But Also has a (minor electric current of its own)... which easily could be the panel itself!... otherwise a 9v battery
... Are there and what kind of backing and if needed.. buffer to such a device would I need?...

.... Anyone that took the time to read that.. you have my thanks.. and Any insight into the matter would be appreciated.
~Sincerely... M.O.M.
P.S. I posted this on the newbie forum as well... so excuse that... This is a more appropriate forum... thx again..

[russ]

Hi Hyper - Welcome to Solar Panel Talk!

Peltier devices work on differential temperature - the temps around the panels are not enough to do any good.

Russ

[Mike90250]

Peltier plates are HUGELY innificient. for 5 watts of cooling, you need to consume 50 watts of power, and dissipate it as heat.

[john p]

the "cold" side of the peltier device would need a large finned alluminium heatsink and a fan to disipate the heat or within a minute of use the "cold" side will be the same temperature as the "hot " side.. HMMMMM NOT PRACTICAL OR EFFECIENT

[hyperballad]

Huh?

the "cold" side of the peltier device would need a large finned alluminium heatsink and a fan to disipate the heat or within a minute of use the "cold" side will be the same temperature as the "hot " side.. HMMMMM NOT PRACTICAL OR EFFECIENT

Okay... trying to read this clearly... Why would the Cold side need to dissipate Heat? I can see it being too cold on the COLD side.. but what your describing doesn't make sense. Heatsinks and fans are used to dissipate HEAT. Now.. if what you're trying to say is that the HOT side needs a heatsink.. that doesn't work either. Have you ever used one before? That's kinda the neat thing about Peltier's.. as one side gets hotter or colder.. the equal and opposite heat/cold is produced on the opposite side.. I've used them to keep computers.. Aquariums cool.. get back to me on this.. I wanna know what your talking about... thx

[hyperballad]

I haven't run in to Peltier's of that type

Peltier plates are HUGELY innificient. for 5 watts of cooling, you need to consume 50 watts of power, and dissipate it as heat.

The Peltier's I'm talking about runs off a 9v battery... I admit.. not dealing with Large panels... or any... used them for heat reductiion on LXT and even Aquariums.. they kick arse and I've never run into a power consumption prob... let me know what size/type your talking about... thx

[john p]

OK I try to explain it better..
If you hold a peltier device near a heat source the side close to the heat will get hot (of course) now for a few seconds the other side will get cold, then after about one minute the"cold" side will now be same temperature as the hot side.. That is a fact,
its the same if you connect power say 5a and 12v the usual to a device for about 5 seconds one side will get hot he other side cold then after about 30 seconds both sides will be hot, in this case if you want cold you have to mount the cold side in an insulated container and have a piece of sheet aluminium to "spread " the cold and a heatsink and a fan on the hot side to remove the heat.
Many years ago i thought they would be good for cooling compact high power audio amplifiers but in the end after many different approaches found they just useless as the huge amount of heatsink needed made them impractical.It was also tried by a few other high end audio manufacturers but they gave up for same reasons.
In outer space they work fantastic as you can have +200f in sun and -50f in shade.

[Travis.Funk]

Aren

[Mike90250]

Aren

Try using a windows computer with plain simple fonts, and not a cellphone or apple. The oddball fonts get interpreted as canned meat.

[Sunking]

I laughed myself out of the chair 7 years ago when this thread came up. This stinks of spam.

[J.P.M.]

I laughed myself out of the chair 7 years ago when this thread came up. This stinks of spam.

I got the link blocked as a malware and a phishing scam.

Using Peltier effect devices for such applications is B.S. any way, for a lot of reasons besides crappy efficiency.

[jflorey2]

cause if you could stick the heat side on say... the Roof of a house... and the cold side as the backing of a panel.. then you would have a self-sustaining cooling system for the panels.. and thus improve efficiency.... that's the beauty of the Peltier.. the hotter the hot side gets.. the cooler the cool side gets.. so it would also be self-regulating...

That's the opposite of self-regulating. In fact it's sort of the definition of thermal runaway.

..... My main concern is this: I question if the panels can be fixed to something that not only could potentially be emitting freezing temps. But Also has a (minor electric current of its own)... which easily could be the panel itself!... otherwise a 9v battery

You'd need tens of thousands of watts to make a significant difference in the temperature of the panels. And then you'd need somewhere to dissipate all that heat.

Want a cheaper solution? Water cool them or something. You'll spend way more money, and have problems with leaks (water and high voltage DC definitely don't mix) but will work far better than active cooling.

[MegaPhase]

Perhaps a useable amount of electricity could be made from many pettier devices under a panel durning winter. Heat from sun heats up panel and hot side of device, and cold air keeps the other side cold. Just thowing this idea out there. If air is too warm it

[J.P.M.]

Perhaps a useable amount of electricity could be made from many pettier devices under a panel durning winter. Heat from sun heats up panel and hot side of device, and cold air keeps the other side cold. Just thowing this idea out there. If air is too warm it

If you are referring to Peltier device, it will not be a viable option, at least not at this time. The reasons start with poor Peltier device efficiency and, for lots of other and additional reasons goes downhill from there.