Steve
Take a look at

David in Kenai
Is it a pair of thermocouples run in reverse. What is a thermocouple: if you join two dis-similar metals, you get a small voltage. If you get one T/C hot and keep another one cool and connect one lead of each, you will have a simple. solid state, low-efficiency electrical generator when you put an electrical load between the two remaining wires. Putting a bunch in series and in parallel lets you increase the available voltage and amperage. Such a "thermocouple pile" is used one the Voyager spacecraft. One pile is heated by a nuclear reaction. The cold junction is hanging out in space, radiating heat away. Very simple and very reliable. But only about 10-15% efficient. Doing the reverse - apply a voltage to two different thermocouple piles - causes one to get hot and the other to get cold. Those plug-in solid-state ice-chest/warmers use that effect. They also have a fan to blow heat away from the hot junction. You need an electrical source like line voltage or a cigarette lighter (not batteries!) because it sucks a lot of power for not much effect. It is better at keeping something hot or cold than it is at GETTING something cold. i.e. it would take a LONG time to make ice cubes. It wouldn't make a very good air conditioner because the efficiency is so bad. Freon or some other compressible gas in a refridgeration cycle is MUCH more efficient and that pulls a few horsepower. To cool a car with a peltier-effect T/Cs would suck 100 hp or more. What it can do is cool a little volume, like a few beer cans.