Hi Russel, 

May be a bit late in the day...

You could also try Russian manufacturers of TEMs:
http://www.kryothermusa.com and IIRC http://www.kryotherm.ru 

They also have a free design software on their site. I haven't explored
the software much, it helps in TEM design for their more common use -
pass current to generate heat, reverse current direction to remove heat.

Regards,
Mohit.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu
> [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Russell McMahon
> Sent: Monday, January 10, 2005 3:40 AM
> To: PIC List
> Subject: [EE] Free design software - Peltier cooler / heater 
> /thermoelectricgenerator
> 
> 
> Melcor - Free Peltier design software plus good site covering their
> products.
> Registration required - very worthwhile design package. 3.2 MB 
> download.
> 
> Thermoelectric power generation calculation was what I was interested
> in and this is the first calculator for this that I have found.
> 
> Software download
> 
>         http://www.melcor.com/software.html
> 
> Home page
> 
>         http://www.melcor.com/
> 
> This software demonstrates the practicality of using Peltier devices
> as power generators for electronic projects.
> eg a 1 watt requirement at 5 volts could be met with 175 
> watts thermal 
> input, 30C air temperature and 0.3 C/W heatsink.
> Improving heatsink to 1C/W reduces power in to 125 thermal watts.
> 
> 
> 
>         RM
> 
> _________________
> 
> For Thermoelectric Power generation (TMG) maintaining an adequate low
> side temperature will be a challenge. Heatsinks from 0.1 to 0.01 
> C/Watt may be required depending on power loads or required 
> efficiencies. Realistically the lower end of these would need to be 
> achieved with "heat pipe" technology. Thermal to electrical 
> efficiencies of around 5% are achievable with a 200c hot side and 30c 
> cold side. Temperatures above 200C not recommended. At eg 
> laptop loads 
> of around 25 watts and 5% efficiency thermal input is about 
> 500 watts. 
> A 0.1C/w heatsink would have a 50c temperature drop - obviously not 
> nice for efficiency.
> 
> A worked example from their calculator gives
> For Thot = 200C, Tcold sink = 30C, Cold sink = 0.1 C/W
> 15V, 1.5A nominal requirement.
> 
> 15.16V, 1.52A = 23 watts out.
> 590 watts in thermal
> 3.9% efficiency
> Tcold junction = 87C !!! (due to heatsink drop)
> Carnot efficiency of actual Peltier = (200-87)/(273+200) = 23.9% so
> 3.9% is 16% of Carnot.
> Solutions using 10, 12 15 & 18 of their Peltier devices in various 
> series/parallel combinations are given.
> 
> _________
> 
> Dropping heatsink thermal resistance to an (almost impossible) 0.01
> C/W gives almost 7% efficiency and 350W in.
> 
> ____________
> 
> Using 0.1 C/W and -30C cold heatsink gives 16 to 18 % efficiency
> 
> 
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