[CivBase]

I haven't watched it recently, but here are the main takeaways I remember:

Peltier coolers are neat because they're very small and quiet - as opposed to vapor compression systems solutions. However, they are an order of magnitude less energy efficient.

Also Peltier coolers still have to obey the laws of thermodynamics, which means that to cool one side of the mechanism, you must heat the other side. In order to do any substantial cooling, you need a way to dispose of that heat on the other side. This usually involves the use of radiators and fans, which negate much of the size and noise benefits.

As a result, Peltier coolers are pretty niché. Your use case would have to require only a little bit of cooling. You'd have to need a form factor that cannot accomidate a vapor cooling solution. And you'd have to be willing to make the system very energy inefficient.

[simonebrunozzi]

AFAIK, no one has tried to build a Peltier cell paired with a heat pump. I am not an expert, but I would imagine that it's a path that could bring higher efficiencies. Thoughts?

[roelschroeven]

It seems to me that if you have a heat pump, you don't need the Peltier anymore.

[thoroughburro]

The heat pump is already so efficient that, I assume, adding something less efficient just makes it worse.

[everforward]

Also not an expert, but I’m struggling to find a combination where one of those couldn’t be replaced with a passive thermoconductive element. It’s hard to beat the efficiency of “free”.

[whamlastxmas]

It would be more efficient to just make the heat pump slightly more capable of cooling to reach the same total performance

[marcosdumay]

It's one of those cases where you can chase a very small relative gain by adding a lot of complexity.

[cyberge99]

Like horsepower.