19 Amps!?

If I were to get a 156 watt peltier that would run off of 12 volts and need 19 amps, how could I get 19 amps. I have many spare power supplies but they all have a max amp output of ~10 amps. Would it be possible to hook the one peltier up to two powersupplies. Thanks for all the help!

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but running two power supplies in parallel should double the amps if they're rated the same. If this is coorect, you can just connect the pelt to two seperate 12v lines

That is what I hoped I could do but do the power supplies have to be rated at the same amps?

I think that we need Hoot to help us with this one.

There is definitely some "Ju Ju" involved in parallelling PSUs to achiever greater current capacity. You simply have to try it and see if it works. Yes, in theory their combined output currents should sum. The best chance you have of this working would be to use identical make and model PSUs, assuming you have two of the same. You do want to put a minimum load of say one amp on each PSUs +5V output since the load on the +5V impacts the regulation of the +12V output. If you experience evidence that one of the PSUs is working a lot harder than the other and the load is not balancing evenly between them, simple add a .01 to .1 ohm power resistor in series with each PSUs +12V output before the point where you merge the two. That is referred to as ballast and helps equalize differences in the output impedance variations from one PSU to the next. Use as low a value of resistance as necessary to force the load to balance. That's all that comes to mind.

73, Hoot

Wow! Thanks I think that this will be a lot of help.

PC power & cooling sells 1amp power load resistors if
that becomes a problom.

If you dont use power off the 5v line you will end up with
about 10v or skyrocket to dangerous levels, possibly
up to 25v!!! This is because the 5v & 12v lines are on the same
transformer. So if you dont draw enough power on the 5v
line, the transformers output volts begin to rise. thus
causing the 12v line to increase. The 12v line HAS NO REGULATOR!
Unles you have a PC power & cooling supply.

In the more common 10v issue its somewhat of the same thing,
however its the regulator that is working to hard, because none,
or too little power is being used.

If you have seen 12v lines go higher in rating, such as 12.2, 12.6
or even higher this explanes not enough power drawn from the
5+12v transformer. If it goes to low your drawing too much.

They should be fine nomatter the mix, I would however get
a power load resistor. The only other thing I want to state is
if possible make the power draw only 80% or less of the capacity,
not doing this can cause pre-mature failure of the supply. As
well as most supplys are a bit overrated.