Does this count as exotic cooling?

[Bfuqua]

So I have one of those cheapo mini fridge things that uses a small peltier pad for the cooling. 

 

It wasn't getting very cold, and the worn out fan was really loud. 

 

So after finding this ancient asetek AIO at a yard sale, I decided to try to wire it up to the fridge using all the mounting pressure of cheap duct tape. 

 

Used Noctua NT-H1 for the thermal paste. 

 

Haven't had time to see if it cools properly or not, so we'll see. 

[Agall]

13 minutes ago, Bfuqua said:

So I have one of those cheapo mini fridge things that uses a small peltier pad for the cooling. 

 

It wasn't getting very cold, and the worn out fan was really loud. 

 

So after finding this ancient asetek AIO at a yard sale, I decided to try to wire it up to the fridge using all the mounting pressure of cheap duct tape. 

 

Used Noctua NT-H1 for the thermal paste. 

 

Haven't had time to see if it cools properly or not, so we'll see. 

So is this cooling for the compressor?

[Bfuqua]

16 minutes ago, Agall said:

So is this cooling for the compressor?

It doesn't have a compressor. It uses a peltier pad. One side gets hot, and the other get cold. The more heat you can dissipate from the hot side, the colder the cold side gets. 

[Agall]

9 minutes ago, Bfuqua said:

It doesn't have a compressor. It uses a peltier pad. One side gets hot, and the other get cold. The more heat you can dissipate from the hot side, the colder the cold side gets. 

Then that peltier pad is performing the refrigeration cycle, not cooling. Its semantics, but I understand. Depending on the wattage, I'd be surprised if an old 120mm AIO can provide sufficient heat transfer out to the hot side of a peltier, but I'd be curious to see what temperature delta that peltier creates if you have a pyrometer to check with.

[Bfuqua]

47 minutes ago, Agall said:

Then that peltier pad is performing the refrigeration cycle, not cooling. Its semantics, but I understand. Depending on the wattage, I'd be surprised if an old 120mm AIO can provide sufficient heat transfer out to the hot side of a peltier, but I'd be curious to see what temperature delta that peltier creates if you have a pyrometer to check with.

It's not the refrigeration cycle. It's completely electronic. No refrigerant and no pipes or compressors. LTT made a whole video about them a few years ago. 

 

I honestly don't have a clue what the wattage is, but it came from the store with nothing but a small heat sink and 90mm case fan. I have to imagine this AIO would vastly outperform it, even with the terrible mounting pressure. 

 

I don't have any way of measuring the actual performance, aside from simply feeling how cold the inside of the fridge gets. I mostly did this just for the fun of it. I got the fridge for free, so I didn't mind mutilating it. 

[Agall]

15 minutes ago, Bfuqua said:

It's not the refrigeration cycle. It's completely electronic. No refrigerant and no pipes or compressors. LTT made a whole video about them a few years ago. 

 

I honestly don't have a clue what the wattage is, but it came from the store with nothing but a small heat sink and 90mm case fan. I have to imagine this AIO would vastly outperform it, even with the terrible mounting pressure. 

 

I don't have any way of measuring the actual performance, aside from simply feeling how cold the inside of the fridge gets. I mostly did this just for the fun of it. I got the fridge for free, so I didn't mind mutilating it. 

I'm aware of the difference and the engineering and theory of thermodynamics, including peltier coolers.

 

"The refrigeration cycle, sometimes called a heat pump cycle, is a means of routing heat away from the area you want to cool."

 

"Thermodynamic heat pump cycles or refrigeration cycles are the conceptual and mathematical models for heat pump, air conditioning and refrigeration systems. A heat pump is a mechanical system that allows for the transmission of heat from one location at a lower temperature to another location at a higher temperature."

 

It's a refrigeration cycle, just a simplified one that's solid state and doesn't use a phase change cycle like one with a compressor. Simplified, it involves spending energy to have a lower relative kinetic energy in a specific system. That being the explicit purpose behind a refrigerator. Forcing a phase change being a simple way of displacing kinetic energy without relying on a difference in temperature.

 

In this case, creating one through some strange interaction between a matrix of P and N type semiconductors, which I imagine very few people properly understand.

 

If you have a wattmeter and can measure the draw from the wall, I'd guess about 80-90% of its total draw would be about the thermal energy out from the peltier. You can probably validate whether your mounting pressure is sufficient that way as well since applying more force may result in higher draw given the mechanics of a peltier. 

[RevGAM]

To answer your question: yes, it's exotic IMHO. 

[Bfuqua]

8 hours ago, RevGAM said:

To answer your question: yes, it's exotic IMHO. 

Well it's been running all day with some bottles of lemonade in it, and it's built up ice inside it, so I'd say it works pretty well. 

[RevGAM]

7 hours ago, Bfuqua said:

Well it's been running all day with some bottles of lemonade in it, and it's built up ice inside it, so I'd say it works pretty well. 

But is the lemonade frozen? That's the big question! If it is, take 'em out and I'm coming over!