So, if you plan to store your wines in a relatively small space, prefer quiet motorless cooling and durability, obviously a thermoelectric wine cooler is your choice. As you scale up the size of your wine collection, you may want to consider a compressor-driven model. I’m sure Shireen will be happy to help you decide which is right for your space.

“Thermoelectric junctions are generally only around 5–10% as efficient as the ideal refrigerator (Carnot cycle), compared with 40–60% achieved by conventional compression cycle systems (reverse Rankine systems like a compressor). Due to the relatively low efficiency, thermoelectric cooling is generally only used in environments where the solid state nature (no moving parts, maintenance-free) outweighs pure efficiency.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling

“The heart of a thermoelectric refrigerator would be a material that generates a significant temperature gradient in response to an applied voltage, explains Terry M. Tritt of Clemson (S.C.) University.

The greatest cooling efficiency comes from thermoelectrics that conduct electricity well but heat poorly. Unfortunately, “only a handful of materials fit in this category,” Vining says. Often, optimizing one property sends the other one plummeting.

Scientists who work with thermoelectrics have devised what they call a figure of merit, or ZT, which combines a material’s electric and thermal conductivities with a measure of its capacity to generate electricity from heat. Bismuth telluride, still state-of-the-art after 40 years, has a ZT of about 1. For a thermoelectric material to come close to replacing the compressors in standard refrigerators, Lyon says, it would need a figure of merit of 4 or 5. ”

http://sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc97/9_6_97/bob1.htm

“The best commercially available thermoelectrics have a figure of merit of ZT ~ 1, corresponding to an energy conversion efficiency of about 10% of the Carnot value. Whereas this relatively low efficiency limits thermoelectrics to niche applications, a significant increase in efficiency would have substantial economic impact. For instance, an effective thermoelectric may be used to partially recycle waste heat from the exhausts of car engines, potentially leading to significantly improved gas mileage. Thermoelectrics can also be used for silent refrigerators that have no compressor or refigerant”

http://www.uoregon.edu/~linke/res_thermoelectrics.html

http://www.winecoolersguide.com/wine-coolers-guide/resource-center/thermoelectric-wine-coolers-or-wine-refrigerators.aspx