Post by thread:Thermoelectric Cooler (peltier) response

Greetings, In years past, I worked with thermoelectric coolers, and I can't think of any electrical advantage to wiring these devices in parallel and I can think of advantages to wiring them in series. I would ignore the review critism unless the critic can supply some evidence to support his position. The functioning of the thermoelectric coolers is in response to a current flowing through them, irrespective of the source of the current. Dave Reinagel

Well, I think there are considerations to both suggested methods. If devices are connected in parallel, then the device with the lowest internal resistance will draw more current. Those with higher resistance will draw less current making some (possibly most) of the other units less than 100% efficient. On the other hand, units in series will allow the unit with the highest internal resistance to have a higher share of the voltage, while all units get the same current. Also not really efficient unless the devices are well matched. Now, think about what would happen if the current draw (internal resistance) changes as each device sees different thermal loads... this would really screw up a series or parallel configuration. Andy MacDonald {Original Message removed}

At 10:31 1999-01-22 -0800, Andy MacDonald wrote: ... > Now, think about what would happen if the current draw >(internal resistance) changes as each device sees different thermal >loads... this would really screw up a series or parallel >configuration. I see now: the parallelled configuration will face less temperarure difference variation between peltiers, of they see different thermal loads. Much more efficient method is to dimension the thermal leaders to distribute most efficient and the very least heat drop. /Morgan %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Morgan Olsson ph +46(0)414 70741 MORGANS REGLERTEKNIK fax +46(0)414 70331 H€LLEKS (in A-Z letters: "HALLEKAS") SE-277 35 KIVIK, SWEDEN spam_OUTmrtTakeThisOuTiname.com %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%