New cooling breakthrough nearly doubles efficiency
> Date:
> September 20, 2025
> Source:
> Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
> Summary:
> CHESS thin-film materials nearly double refrigeration efficiency compared to traditional methods.
> Scalable and versatile, they promise applications from household cooling to space exploration.
>
> Link:
>formatting link
> So, all my cheap Peltier cells from ebay? Outdated?
Obviously. But doubling the refrigeration efficiency of Peltier cells still leaves them shockingly inefficient. Using Peltier cells involves lots of expensive heat pipes and heat sinks to get rid of the waste heat.
It's worth it in some specialised applications, and doubling the efficiency will create a few more of them, but it's not going to make a whole lot of difference. And the new materials won't be cheap to make.