4 ms·
The meta goal of greenwashing means you can't use Peltier coolers as it would take insane amounts of power to replace a condensing fridge, like dedicated circui
by VLM 4y ago
The meta goal of greenwashing means you can't use Peltier coolers as it would take insane amounts of power to replace a condensing fridge, like dedicated circuit 15 amps. They're very inefficient... if you're burning coal. What if you're not burning coal?
Consider this loophole... imagine a crappy anti-green energy wasting Peltier cooler connected to a solar panel. Half the day it chills down to -70C and then all night long it slowly warms up to -50C until sunrise. Probably the bottom quarter of the fridge is a giant ice block with fans blowing on it when the fridge above warms up, whereas the cooling is solar and below and is on full blast whenever the sun is up.
Minor problem is now you're dumping 1500 watts of heat into your kitchen whenever the sun's up. Nice in the winter, not so much in the summer. And some idiot is going to gain access to the cold-sink to "chill their vodka" and end up with frostbite when they touch the -70C sink. And good luck periodically defrosting that beast. But, in general, its not an overly crazy idea.
- ilyt 4y agoNo, it is utterly terrible solution, as even the worst refrigerant beats peltier coolers.
- VLM 4y agoMy point is even the best refrigerant powered by coal or even "rando outlet power on average" is less green than the worst Peltier cooler powered by a solar panel. So as per OPs original claim that if we ban every chemical more hazardous than distilled water we can have no refrigeration is not entirely true, we can in theory redesign the entire system around not using any refrigerants. It would be an environmental disaster if not powered by solar, or maybe wind, of course, but it would technically work.
- ilyt 4y agoWell, no, coz you can use refrigerant like CO2 and that could be taken from atmosphere.
- kragen 4y agoi agree that tecs are a plausible solution for some applications, and i have in fact lived in a house with a small tec-driven refrigerator, but phase-change energy storage or tces are more viable solutions to the daily energy storage problem than the sensible-heat energy storage approach you suggest, among other things because the large ΔT you suggest would entail an absurdly large stack of tecs you can solve the waste heat problem by putting the tecs outside and running a coolant loop through the wall, filled with brine or propylene glycol; in the case of pces, the chilled coolant from the tecs freezes the ice inside your kitchen, in the ice reservoir which is used to cool the icebox tces systems (not to be confused with tecs) can be driven directly by solar heat rather than through pv however, i am not convinced that tecs are a viable alternative to vapor-compression refrigeration in general