New thermoelectric cooling breakthrough nearly doubles efficiency
8 comments
·September 21, 2025xbmcuser
One of the greatest need for energy in the next few years is going to be for air conditioning if this really works it is going to be put another nail in the coffin of Oil and gas industry.
pornel
The press release doesn't give any concrete numbers, but if it doubles efficiency of Peltier coolers, it's still 3-5× less efficient than heat pumps.
Thermoelectric cooling is notable for not having any moving parts and ability to scale down to small sizes, so it might end up having many specialized applications, but for A/C heat pumps are already very effective.
thomasmg
Air conditioning is mostly needed while the sun is shining, and so electricity of A/C can come mostly from photovoltaics (plus batteries). So I think this technology is not quite as important. Sure, its nice to reduce electricity usage! But cheaper heat storage, for winter, seems more important.
mapt
You can double the speed of a slug and not have it do anything meaningful as a useful domestic animal.
Thermoelectric cooling is extremely inefficient, to the point that we have very little practical use for it right now. Heat pumps a hundred times more effective predominate.
jcims
Holy ads Batman - https://imgur.com/a/6vwJBkT
whiterook6
Is this similar to Peltier coolers?
westurner
ScholarlyArticle: "Nano-engineered thin-film thermoelectric materials enable practical solid-state refrigeration" (2025) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59698-y :
> Abstract: Refrigeration needs are increasing worldwide with a demand for alternates to bulky poorly scalable vapor compression systems. Here, we demonstrate the first proof of practical solid-state refrigeration, using nano-engineered controlled hierarchically engineered superlattice thin-film thermoelectric materials. [...] The improved efficiency and ultra-low thermoelectric materials usage herald a new beginning in solid-state refrigeration.
Doubles efficiency? From what I understand, the efficiency was pretty lousy to start with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnMRePtHMZY
Aren't there theoretical limits to this sort of cooling too?
But, if this innovation causes Technology Connections to make yet another heat pumps video, I'm all for it.