Reddit mentions of TEC1-12718 Thermoelectric Cooler Peltier 180W 277.2Wmax

So, this isn't a typical /r/Navy posting, however it has made deployment much easier.

I'm on an ancient hunk of shit with wheezy unreliable A/C plants.

It's Africa hot outside. Trying to sleep in berthing was miserable.

I ordered some random shit off Amazon and whipped this thing up in an afternoon.

For those of you that don't what a peltier cooler does:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling

I have one heatsink/fan combo on each side of the element. One blows hot, one blows cold.

I have the heatsink/fan block in the corner of my rack blowing hot air out and cold air in onto my face. The power supply chills in an angle iron behind my rack.

It's made sleeping at night WAY nicer.

It's a ghetto proof of concept, but it works (well).

The big ticket items are here:

http://www.amazon.com/TEC1-12718-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Peltier-277-2Wmax/dp/B005EZIKLC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1409628269&sr=1-1&keywords=12718

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002CT0YQW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That peltier element I used was pretty expensive, but it was the only one available through a merchant that would ship to an FPO while I am deployed.

If I had to do it all over again, I would use this element:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EQ1X5EC/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0ZP08SAAJ6Z8ZTG2THYT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

The wattage is much higher (which means more cooling), and it's much cheaper. Unfortunately the vendors for those are in China and they don't ship to FPO's. This element may also be pushing the limits of some el-cheapo ATX power supplies. Double check your wattages before you begin.

The fan controller is a little bling, but it had temperature probes for testing. The heatsink/fan units come with basic potentiometer controls already in the box (I didn't use these). The fan controller was only $20, so for proof of concept it was totally worth it.

All you need in addition to the heatsinks/fans/peltier mat is a +12VDC power supply. The one I'm using puts out 520 watts. Got it for free. The IT's were going to float test a bunch of them. Any +12VDC power supply will work. The ATX unit just happened to be on hand.

Wire up the peltier mat to one of the high wattage +12v outputs and you're good to go. Connect the fans to standard molex connectors. If that's too complicated... you really shouldn't be messing with this stuff, as it's enough wattage to start a decent fire if you fuck up.

NSTM 300 compliance is a grey area(as that forbids fans) however to get technical, it's not really a violation. A fan is never connected to ships power. All that is ever connected to ships power is one half of a transformer for a DC power supply (which passes a MIP/3000 check).

Next step is to make an enclosure for the power supply/fan controller and get the heatsink umbilical in some abrasion resistant conduit/heat shrink.

Like I said, not normal Navy stuff, but I'm sure someone can make use of this idea as there are some smart/handy people around here.

Curious to see what other clever things some of the people here have come up with to make life a little bit easier.