by Woody » Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:42 am
The unit had a thermistor installed on it to limit power consumption( from manufacture so your battery wouldn't melt after a 1/2 hour of use, it now takes 4 hours) and disapated the difference in heat. From the articles I read, they all state in one form or another of diminished or decreased efficiency by limiting input amps along with voltage. Now granted it also is a function of how and what the chips were originally designed for and there usage and or application. It also said of the use of either ON and OFF switches to control power consumption or the use of tempeture control modules (Automatic ON/OFF thermostatic switch device) for when temp control functions are required. Since temp regulation can not be simply controlled or maintained by varing the input voltages and amps due to the efficiency problem associated by the way these chips are designed to operate. I would still suggest using shore power and 120 vac to 12 - 16 vdc converter and some form of thermostat switch device to save rampant battery power consumption. Also by using the hot side of the chip to heat water might affect to the cooling side efficency, the same way ambient outside temps have on the chips cooling ability but to a larger extent. By holding the heat in the heat sink ( heating water) instead of disapating it into the surrounding enviroment rapidly would have a limiting factor on the effective cooling. At first it probally would aid in heat dissapation, but as the water warms up the heat exchange would be greatly diminished, which in turn would inhibit the cooling function you desire