In 1834, a French watchmaker turned physicist named Jean Charles Athanase Peltier discovered thermoelectric cooling, a solid-state plan of heat convey through dissimilar semiconductor materials.
The calculus of how it works was named the Peltier Effect in addition to it is the basis of how temperatures are measured with thermocouples.
The cooling effect is caused by the absorption of heat energy by electrons as they pass through the “frosty junction” into the heat sink (the hot side) driven by a DC power source. The beauty of the plan is that it does not use any eco-unfriendly refrigerants in addition to thus eliminates the need for the conventional coils in addition to compressor of a conventional refrigeration or HVAC system, and unluckyly, it requires a power source in addition to is seriously inefficient due to the conductive nature of the metals that form the junction. The implications for the HVAC industry are tremendous assuming that the efficiencies can be improved, in addition to systems can be developed to cool large areas. It would put to rest the gripe against HVAC that the use of chlorine-based refrigerants is destroying the Earth’s ozone layer. Linking up a plan with solar panels would lower problems over the consumption of energy created by fossil fuels. The other large gripe is that HVAC produces too much heat that is released to the environment. Wouldn’t the cool air in millions of houses across the USA eventually warm up again in addition to consume the heat in obeyance of the first law of thermodynamics? In the 1950s ipads that were the size of houses pale in comparison to this week’s palm-sized smartphones. The challenge ahead is to use the Peltier effect to cool that beach house without the solid state HVAC systems becoming the size of one.