Heat Dissipation via Battery Charging

The image shows the heat dissipation caused by a 10W battery charging circuit without a heatsink or forced cooling. Thermal management is a must in designs. Always follow the datasheet during layouts for the best thermal performance. Here dissipation is mostly via thermal vias and a large ground plane.

Thermal cameras will help you isolate thermal issues in your high-current boards.

Pro-tip for PCB designers: Never Ever give thermal relief for thermal vias. You will reduce the thermal dissipation with those reliefs. Folks usually miss this in design due to the usual habit of creating vias with thermal reliefs.

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Frost-free Freezers

Frost-free freezers are now almost a defacto standard in most refrigerators used at home. Ever wondered how they work compared to the old frosted type freezers? It’s quite simple actually, all it contains is an auto timer which heats your freezer section to “melt the ice” at fixed intervals. It just replaces the defrost button in the old freezers. It does come with the advantage that you don’t need to clean the frost as in old freezers but there is no free lunch here.

Frost-free freezers are much more power-hungry than the old type of freezers because of the regular heat cycling to remove the frost. So it will add to your monthly electricity bill. The temperature inside that won’t be as cool as the older ones. So things won’t last that long if you want to keep it in there.

If you are looking for the most power-efficient freezers out there for long-term use, pick the ones which are used in shops for cooling icecreams, meat etc. The ones with the top door open type. They are built in such a way to minimize the heat loss(Top door) as cool air sinks and keeps things cooler.

Things you learn when you simply start observing things in and around your home.

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