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Peltier PSU retailer idea in the works

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vonkaar

Member
Joined
May 20, 2003
Location
Colleyville, TX
I do IT work for a pretty well known Electronics refurbishing company. I get a lot of my cooling ideas from the old electronic engineer types that are all throughout the building. We also have thousands of various electronic testing equipment throughout our warehouse that are just *looking* for a buyer. Everyone is always looking for new markets to expand into, and I'm thinking about approaching the CEO with the PC-Cooling market. I *know* we have probably hundreds of power supplies that would do well for peltiers, and our buyers could probably get them pretty cheap. I would like to get them to find some units pretty cheap so I could resell them to the overclocker crowd.

This would be pretty small potatoes for the company, but any new niche they could extend services into, is progress for the company. We have thousands of electronic testing equipment filling our warehouse... Agilent, BK, HP, Sorenson, Dranetz, TEK, Leader, Anritsu... to name a few. I'm more of a 'firewalls and routers' kind of guy, so I'm not sure what they should look for. What I'm wondering is...

Is there a particular brand name of power supply that would be popular for someone looking to run a peltier? Obviously a rack-mount unit with 100A at 50v would probably be a bit overkill. The smaller in size the better, right? A 226 watt Peltier seems to be the max that anyone uses, would it be best to just offer 1 power supply that can handle a 226w and under, or various tiers. A $50 PSU for the 226w peltiers, a $40 psu for the smaller peltiers... a $30 for the 80w models... etc.

Next, what are the exact specs I need to tell the buyers? It needs to handle 226w at 15v(?), right? So... a supply that puts out 15 volts and can handle up to 20 amps or so would be sufficient, yes? Is variable voltage desirable, or should we go about looking for the exact PSU for the exact peltier? Would a pre-wired PSU be more attractive than a DIY model? Basically, if you were to go to an electronics buyer and say "Find me a bunch of THESE..." what should I say?

Lastly, just how important is size? I've always pictured running a peltier PSU from within my cases, but I use massive towers and have more room than I can use. Would more people want a self-contained external PSU, or would a smaller unit that doesn't put out too much heat be more attractive?

I wasn't sure if I should put this here or vendor discussion... I figured since many of my questions are aimed at the "Extreme Cooling" crowd, it was more applicable here.

Thanks for your opinions!
 
Awesome idea. Most people using the 226W TECs are using Meanwell S320-12 PSUs that supply 25 amps on the 12V line. Even though the 226W TECS go up to 15.2 volts most people using them run them at around 80% of the max voltage since really anymore doesnt gain enough performance for the extra cost of electricity.

Right now the Meanwell is nice since it is small enough to fit inside a PC case into a 5.25 bay whereas alot of other PSU's are just tooo damn big. If I had to design the perfect peltier PSU I personnally would make it small enough to fit in a 5.25 bay, make it quiet since a lot of people use TECs in combination with Watecooling for quietness and make it supply around 30-40 amps on the 12V rail to power a 226W TEC for CPU and an 80W for GPU. Also allow the PSU to be adjusted +/- 10% on that 12V rail so people can choose the best voltage.
 
I agree with Animal982. A 12V supply, handling around 25A or around 32A. Adjustable +-10% ok, adjustable +-20%YES!

Just to clarify, a 226W TEC consumes 365W at maximum. The figure "226" W describes it's maximum cooling capacity.
 
Awesome. Thanks for the input ya'll. I'm going to the big guy tomorrow with this idea, will let ya know how it works out.
 
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