Abstract: Because of high power and low temperature level requirement, thermoelectric coolers were used for heat dissipation of CCDs on a geostationary earth orbit satellite camera. Experimental setup for evaluating thermoelectric coolers' performance was designed. Domestic and oversea thermoelectric coolers were tested in atmosphere and vacuum respectively. Effects of installation, environment pressure, input power and heat load on the temperature difference of thermoelectric coolers' hot and cold faces were obtained experimentally. The experimental results showed that, for present CCDs' heat load on a geostationary orbit satellite, the maximum temperature difference between cold and hot faces was 45.8℃, which satisfied the requirement for running at low temperature level.