Quote Originally Posted by madmaxx View Post
How efficient would a setup like this be? I can't help but think it would use a bunch of electric.
Peltiers are not efficient, and never have been claimed to be so, to the best of my knowledge.

It falls more into the category of acceptable use!, for the below ambient cooling trade off.

Both peltiers energized use a constant 400w wall power, at 200w each, that's the equivalent of running 4 100w lights when both are energized because it is a constant power draw, that wattage is a personally solid tested power draw fact, from actual wall outlet readings.

In my beginning of seeking a below ambient cooling solution I was using a 54qt Coleman camping cooler and freezing ice in gallon jugs with a 10 gallon total water volume with the jugs submerged, I was using 2 freezers to freeze the ice, the peltiers dropped my monthly power bill by $50 US dollars, compared to running 2 freezers freezing the ice for the cooler.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/27...-water-cooling

So to me the expense is more than acceptable, as my goal was to have the peltiers be able to drop my water temperature in the insulated reservoir down to 10c, and they handle that and beyond, so the electrical expense is absolutely acceptable to me, but however, it may not be to you!

The electrical use is what it is and there's no getting around that, so it's either an acceptable expense or not, it's up to the individual user, but if the setup is duplicated you'll get the same results.