for power source, if youre feeling savvy enough, i recommend a 3s RC lipo battery. Lots of power and last all night. But these can be a hassle to charge and you dont want to drain em too low or they can start fires, so i ALSO recommend something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Portable-4500mAh-Rechargeable-Battery-Wireless/dp/B008UKKXRC
or this:
You still want to be careful charging/discharging these. Ive used both for several years and some are still going. QC can be a crapshoot, and i wouldnt expect a whole lot of cycles, but itll give you 12v for a few hours and you can recharge em while you sleep. i used it on this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba2pyNuk7iI
BUT, the real LPT... these strips dont NEED 12v. Ive successfully ran them off of 9v batteries here and here
soooo, just grab a few of these 9v to barrel plug connectors and a handfull of 9v's and youre good to go. ;)
id say thats as lightweight as u can get.
Excellent Find! I only got to read part of it, as I'm at work. I'm really interested to find out how they overcome the Voltage requirements for the Peltier chip. I played with them in the beginning but the price per watt in battery and matierials was to high. I'll finish reading this tonight.
I did order some parts for my second build. I'll be doing endurance testing on the battery this weekend probably.