He's using a cold plate on both side, so I don't see it being that much of an issue.
I hope you're using it in a well ventilated place Pneumonic, it'll be like having a 3bar fire in your room![]()
Oh I didn't see he was going to use copper plates between the heat exchanger plates if hes is the issue is less as you say.
But I still think the Dt problem hasn't been viewed properly.
If you get the performance charts for your TECs looking at the volts/amps first find the current for 12v at 30 Dt.
Then go to the chart you had in your post read up from the amp rating for your operating point and stop when you get to the 30º Dt line read to the left to find your maximum Q at your operating point and I am afraid you will find 8 TECs totals rather less than 12xx watts you calculated.
Your rough calc of 65% Q at 12v is only at Dt=0 (the Qmax value is also quoted at Dt=0.) and of course Dt at 0 means no cooling. A Dt of 0 means your hot and cold sides are the same temp hence no cooling.
As the heat coming off the hotside is generally double the cooling even a modest 500w cooling is 1Kw coming off the hotside.
Snip..
Ultrasonic,
Thank you for your input its much appreciated..
The calculations were based on an increasing input power to the units as the heat load was increased, more than anything to be as 'power efficient as possible' (I.e the QMAX of the system @ 125 TDP is a lot less than at 300 TDP). Thats why the graph is showing a constant-ish delta, other than towards the upper TDP's where the hotside temperatures on the chilled liquid loop start to increase as the water loop beings to have 'issues' dispersing the heat, is this incorrect? Assuming that the water loop can keep the hotside of the chilled liquid loop at a constant-ish temperature then I should maintain the same delta at an increasing TDP if I am proportionally increasing the QMAX? That was my understanding?
Edit: To make sense!
I have seen documentation on multi-stage TECs and minimum cooling which drops well below -100c for 3/4 stages..
The graphs were never meant to be precise just an estimation, I guess the only way is to try and find outIt's keeping me out of trouble at any rate
Yes but you havent SEEN multistage TEC's....
At 4 stage they have a Dt of 111ºC that's why they go so low but they are absolutely tiny and I have yet to see a 3/4 stage in any manufacturers catalogue anywhere in the world bigger than about 45w Qmax. The reason is that there is an anomaly with stacking TEC's that people often just cannot grasp...I am not going into now but just take it from me one CANNOT stack TECs of the size we use for PC's to produce multistage TEC's to get really low temps.
A single stage TEC has a limit in the region of -50ºC now I think about it, it must be an operating temp because the cooling temp is determined by the Dt. So now thinking about it again it must be the limit of the hotside.
With regard to calcs your main problem is Dt. At an operating point of 12v your TECs have a theoretical maximum of Dt 36ºC. Theoretical because a.) the reduction of Dt is not linear so it might be a bit more and b.) in practice you will not achieve the figure what ever it is....same as in practice you will not achieve the 72ºC Dtmax of the TEC. (that is right isn't it, didn't check.)
If your planning hotside temps of ambient +2ºC to +15ºC...I don't know what your ambient is so at a guess i'd say 20ºC your hotside is 22 - 35ºC.
whatever your theoretical Dt is at the operating point of 12v (possibly 36-40ºC.) it will fall from this figure as your load increases and rise back up to it as the load decreases. So when your load is low and hotside is 22ºC you will go subzero but when the load is high, your theoretical 35ºC hotside the Dt will of fallen, lets say for arguements sake the fall is only small to 30ºC your coolant is now +5ºC.
If you are using that said coolant to cool the hotside of the TEC on the CPU you are compounding your problems, you will notice significant lack of cooling which since at that point you have a high load it is not what you want.
That's why generally if you want to go for very low temps hotside cooling is paramount as I said earlier and to be honest i don't think will be sufficient.
I appreciate the need for "ballpark" figures I run TECs myself but I feel your graphs are rather on the high side of optimistic and so too does Ultrasonic2.