I purchased an peltier cooler plate (90W maximum, but it could work at different power) like the model shown in this link http://pcbheaven.com/wikipages/The_Peltier_Thermo-Element/ . It has a wide working range on voltage and current. I use a AC-DC power supplier (12V, 0.5A), which was used to drive MP3 player, to drive the peltier. I also connected a fan (12V, 0.9W) in parallel to the peliter to the supplier. When I plug it to the home socket, it works for 10minutes, one side of the peliter is very cold and other side is so hot, and the fan is working (but spinning so slow). After 10 minutes, the power supplier becomes so hot. I thought the power of the fan is constant and the supplier provide 12V, so why the power supplier is getting that hot, it seems like it is drawing more and more current out of the wall.
How to drive peltier cooler pad at home
dcpeltier
Best Answer
A TEC may have a wide operating range, but it is still essentially a chunk of metal and consumes a lot of current. Your power supply is heating up simply because it is providing as much power as it can to the device and is not working at 100% efficiency (with the loss expressed as heat).