There is a number of factors affecting TEC performance the major ones are as follows

Umax

This is the input voltage that Qmax occurs, at the rated temperature.

Imax

This is the amps drawn at Umax with no load, at the rated temperature.

Qmax

This is the maximum heat transferred between the two sides of the TEC at Umax, at the rated temperature.

dTmax

This is the maximum temperature difference between the hot side and the cold side when no load is applied to the cold side and the hot side is kept at the rated temperature.

Pmax

This technically isn’t an official variable of a TEC. This rating is simply Umax multiplied by Imax. A lot of people on E-bay are selling their TECs based on this rating instead of Qmax. The purposes of doing so is to inflate the apparent power of a TEC.

It is important to remember that ALL of the above factors are affected by the rated hot side temperature. This is another means in which people can inflate the apparent power of a TEC, by simply rating a TEC at a different hot side temperature. As the hot side temperature increases so does all of the above factors. An example of this is a 226watt TEC and a 245 watt TEC which are the same thing just rated at different temperatures.

Th

This stands for the temperature of the hot side

Tc

This stands for the temperature of the cold side

Mounting pressure

For a TEC to be able to transfer the maximum heat from one side to the other a LARGE amount of pressure is required. Roughly10 times more pressure is required to be applied to a TEC than the pressure a standard heat sink applies to a CPU. It is NOT possible to apply the required pressure on a TEC using the standard motherboard mounts as this will crush the CPU or snap the motherboard. The resolution is below

Cold plates

Cold pates are required when direct die cooling (TEC against the CPU) because

 

• It is impossible to apply the required pressure to a TEC without damaging the CPU or board. So a Cold plate is used. A cold plate is simply a flat piece of metal that bolts the hot and cold sides together to enable the correct amount of pressure to be applied against the TEC. This cold plate is then mounted against the CPU

 

• The temperature of the cold side of a TEC is very uneven because there is a small gap between each individual Peltier module so a plate is used to even the temperatures out.

 

• When direct die cooling the required TEC will measure 50x50mm or larger this is much larger than a CPU so a cold plate is require to help spread the heat load out evenly over the TEC.