Peltier cooler

[Callum1985]

Hi, am looking for some advice as I am stumped!! I'm trying to build a peltier cooler to cool my dslr camera and having issues.. I have a tec 1- 12706 peltier module with a w1209 digital thermostat with a cpu fan and heatsink.. The fan is powered by a 9v battery, the peltier module is powered by a 12v dc adapter and the digital thermostat is powered by a separate 12v dc adapter.. I have done it this way to find out what is failing and it is the peltier cooler, It will cool the aluminium sheet by 5 degrees c and then short from what I have gathered this should cool at lot more cooler than 5 degrees ambient temperature any ideas???

[theropod]

I had one of those active ice chests running on 12v DC. It did work, but not well. If I filled it with already cold stuff, and filled the voids with ice, the active cooling would keep ice far longer than would otherwise be the case. It would freeze a lump in the immediate area around the cooling plate IF it was being fed slightly higher voltage than a resting battery (when it was attached to my running vehicle). That 14ish volts over 12 volts seemed to make a big difference.

 

[Gina]

The tec 1- 12706 is a cheap Chinese Peltier TEC and very inefficient.  Better to get a lower power one from RS-online or Farnell at several times the price.  They actually work!

[Michele Scotti]

These videos seem to support Gina's view on different spec TECs disguised under the same dimensions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix_hqW5kfS0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVarAi4qFpM

However the 5degC delta T looks too poor even for a fake TEC. I'd encourage to try to power the peltier directly form the 12v source as well as the source itself can provide at least 6A which is quite some current.

[david_taurus83]

The bracket (cold side?) looks bigger than the heatsink on the hot side. Most peltiers I have seen have a smaller heatsink on the cold side. I'm also looking to make a small coolbox so I can still image over the next few months so following, though I've ordered water based cooling parts instead of air cooling as it's not effective imo