Efficiency is pretty lousy. But sometimes you don't want to lug around a compressor, like inside a portable device (such as a food cooler, portable computer, or even a prosthetic limb). In that case inefficient is often better than nothing.
But also if this is an indication that more research effort is going into this because of breakthroughs, that’s a good thing. Double the efficiency a few more times and pretty soon it could be competitive in many uses.
Solar panels used to be horrible at efficiency. Now they’re pretty amazing and extremely competitive in the power generation market. It, similarly, took a few decades of these kinds of efficiency improvements to get there.
> Solar panels used to be horrible at efficiency. Now they’re pretty amazing and extremely competitive in the power generation market.
To be fair, in my understanding economies of scale kicked in _hard_ for solar, making it much cheaper to produce single panels, moreso than making each individual panel more efficient.
Ehh, we have managed to make pretty tiny compressors these days. Small enough that people are putting AC units into cosplay costumes. You can also buy compressor based ice coolers now that are lighter and last longer than one full of ice or one full of ice and peltier coolers.
I'll throw in my own niche usecase for thermoelectric - deep sky imaging.
I do astrophotography as a hobby (taking pictures of galaxies/nebulae/etc). This involves doing long, multi-minute, exposures repeatedly all night long. The heat generated from such long exposures produces what are called "hot pixels" - noise generated by heat disrupting the electronics.
To combat this, dedicated deep sky imaging cameras run a thermoelectric cooler to bring the sensor to sub-zero temperatures. These sensors tend to be about 23.5×15.7mm in size.
Niche, sure. But I saw an opportunity to bring up an aspect of my own life where I sincerely do not think even the smallest compressors would be practical. Plus, the lack of moving parts in thermoelectric is very attractive.
