Those Peltier effect devices were about 35% efficient as I recall. They are used in solid state refrigerators today. In my youth, I had one embedded in my beer huggie which plugged into the cigarette lighter.
Of course, today, there are those nasty open container laws. :-( Terry On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 9:07 AM, OrionWorks - Steven Vincent Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > http://www.physorg.com/news191687359.html > > Excerpt: > > Muñoz, the paper's primary author, said the "nearly ballistic behavior" of > phonons, quantum particles considered sound's equivalent to light's photons, > makes the graphene material 10 times better than copper or gold at > conducting heat. > > --- > > Back in the 1980s I worked at the Space Astronomy Lab at the University of > Wisconsin, Madison, on a project that eventually flew in a couple of space > shuttle flights. I recall the thermal control instrumentation they were > Thermocouples. They are fascinating devices that depending on which way the > current was flowing you could either heat or cool the device it was attached > to. > > I wonder how efficient phonon technology is compared to thermocouple > technology. Apparently, it has lots of other interesting applications as > well. > > Regards > > Steven Vincent Johnson > www.OrionWorks.com > www.zazzle.com/orionworks > >
