this post was submitted on 21 May 2025
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These are just Peltier cooling mechanisms highly refined it seems. If they've increased the efficiency enough that a full-sized refrigerator can keep food cool without refrigerant or a constant electrical signal, that's huge. AFAIK Peltier coolers still need some electrical input, though minimal.
Peltier is horribly inefficient though.
Efficient enough to run a fan from the heat of my woodstove, so it's got that going for it. And there are 12V coolers people keep in their cars. How efficient does it need to be? If they've improved on standard peltier junctions, maybe it is worth it. Why so negative?
They suck and die all the time. It's a money grab upgrade like paint protection coating.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CnMRePtHMZY
These aren't the same thing as a proper Peltier mechanism as you'd expect it to be implemented with a quality build. These are cheaply built evaporative coolers, not an industrial design.
I've deployed industrial units for outdoor enclosures that run on solar with no battery in places that get up to 115F during the day and do decrease the temp of an enclosure by 15-25F. They aren't cheap, but they do work better than those shitty things referenced in your link.
That's cool. Figured there had to be an industrial option which is always costly. So as soon as cost comes down for consumer grade that'll be nice.
You don't need a peltier for that, a woodstove- stirling engine -powered fan would do just fine.
I'm calling bullshit. There's no way a Peltier element can exceed the coefficient of performance of the refrigeration cycle, at an affordable price, without turning the room into a hothouse.
Their findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59698-y
I'm not questioning the findings. I'm questioning the article, and your interpretation to arrive at such a summary.
It's all potential, and possibilities, and future projections. I'm sure someone will find real world applications for it, but a fridge tacked out with Peltier tiles that draws energy from its ambient environment (while actively ruining the thermal gradient by the way) is ludicrous.
Umm, a typical refrigerator cranks out a lot of heat. Why would would this be less efficient than that?
Check the efficiency of heat pumps.
Read the paper, it's linked below. This is solid state, there's no refrigerant. Heat pumps are efficient, and this IS a heat pump, which is far more efficient than the old school heat pump that uses a 'refrigeration cycle'. I'm with you on being skeptical, and it may be a long time from 'discovery' to production of a saleable device, but this IS a legit significant breakthrough.
Modern refrigerators only generate heat through the capture by refrigerant inside and the pump circulating air. Without those, it's a different story. A Peltier cooling device works similarly, but I can see it being more efficient overall since you would know where the heat ends up. Think car radiator or CPU heatsink. Same basic concept.
Yes, they say this does away with the need for compressors or refrigerants.
"This cools by using electrons to move heat through specialized semiconductor materials, eliminating the need for moving parts or challenging coolant liquids."
Yes, that's a Peltier device by definition. The efficiency of them as of now are not great, so the big news here, if reproducible is that they've refined a process that gets them up to 70%.
Huge if true.