Week Four

This week was devoted to conceptualizing and theorizing the optimal way to incorporate the thermoelectric into the computer.  Many computers, including the Dell Inspiron E1505, which we are using, charge the battery through the motherboard.  It is somewhat dangerous and difficult to run extra current through the motherboard, so it was decided that some of the peripherals of the computer could be rerouted from the battery to the thermoelectric in order to reduce overall power demands.

After a somewhat disappointing week while developing a thermoelectric cell using the materials at hand, it was determined that a composite material would be useful.  A low-cost, commercially available cell was found on tmart.com at the following web-address:  http://www.tmart.com/10pcs-12V-136.8W-TEC-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Peltier_p100480.html and it was evaluated that it could potentially provide an example for thermoelectric construction or, even better still, be incorporated into the computer itself.  The good people at tmart were more than happy to provide expedient service and by some happenstance the wonderful people of UPS provided incredibly quick delivery.  An image of the thermoelectric is included below:

The thermoelectric cell in a static free bag.

The thermoelectric cell removed from the bag.  It is a TEC1-12709 Peltier model.