Air-conditioning units and refrigerators haven't changed since I first remember seeing some in the 1970s. They are big and noisy, such that - if you find yourself in a bedsit apartment or a hotel-room - you just have to learn to live with intermittent engine noise. Oh yeah and such use liquid coolants, often toxic and/or horrendous for our atmosphere (remember CFCs?). At least they're a consistent price; you know what to budget for.
There's also Einstein's fridge. I guess. It didn't take off.
It turns out that a third design exists: the Peltier. They're smaller and quieter. Peltier, unfortunately, relies on a slate of seperate joined parts, complicating the design and running up the price. (Our Peltiers are less "efficient" as well but the real waste in AC and refrigeration isn't the unit, it's the moron opening the door all the time.) Looking around, I find Peltiers used for small-scale projects like keeping beer cold in camping-trips. Mostly the process is for laboratories where they need to cool small samples and don't care about the cost as much. It's been mooted for cars... which means it is not currently used for cars outside chillin' yer tush.
Here is a paper that they've got a simpler, cheaper, and more efficient Peltier. That'll scale Peltiers up to the car level, I think.
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