Mini Peltier Air Conditioner (Plans)

This Instructable will show you how to make a environmental friendly portable air conditioner. This machine uses a Peltier Module as a cooling  mechanism and some cooling fans for blowing air.

Step 1 Here is a Picture How It Works

This is just like the everyday air conditioner that we use. The only thing unique about this that the cooling unit has no moving parts. The only moving parts here are the PC fans.

Comments

[snowluck2345]

a good improvement would be to water cool the hotside of the peliter and to put the radiator outside. peltiers use alot of electricity, they use 100w to move 100w of heat roughly.

[dkiehl]

Wouldn't you route the hot air from the 1st unit into the air intake of the 2nd unit?
I read that the hotter the incoming air is the coulder the output air is.

[Redstormx1]

No way thats crazy talk !!

they cool 20 bellow ambient . if the neutral air is 60 degrees it will cool to 40deg c
The more heat energy it can give of the colder it can get. If you had a massive heat sink and water cooled it would get colder .

[ultimatenoob]

This is probably gonna sound stupid but would it be possible to use 4 AA Batteries to power this thing?

I wanna build a pure portable AC to take with me to beat the heat on those long train/bus rides, I plan to use rechargeable AA batteries of cours.

[Redstormx1]

Would work . They give of alot of heat. though . and use abit of power. your best of using a fan mist spray thing .

[ASCAS]

probably it wont work since peltier modules consumes a lot of electricity

[ultimatenoob]

not even enough to last 30mins to 1hr?

[ASCAS]

yes it could last for 1 hr but you need to choose a low wattage peltier module.

[ultimatenoob]

I see, Any idea on how to find one? I had this my eyes on this one

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-2-pcs-TEC1-12708-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Peltier-12V-/260779788097?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb7afc741#ht_2578wt_952
But from the title its a 12volt peltier?

Also i was planning to put a heat sink with a fan on the hot side, For the cold side, can i just pop this 'Heat Sink Fan' on the cold side to make it blow cold air?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Cooling-Fan-Heatsink-Cooler-CPU-VGA-Video-Card-/140576673236?pt=AU_Components&hash=item20bb05cdd4#ht_3165wt_905

or maybe this one?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/North-South-Bridge-shipset-40mm-cooling-fan-Heatsink-2p-/140635732694?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item20be8afad6#ht_2544wt_975

Thanks for the help

[junits15]

something like this is usually very hard to get working, because there are some many things that can go wrong. fans heatsinks power supplies. I have a peltier and a watercooler for it, but i still cant find a 12VDC 14 amp power supply. :(

[Rottom]

try amazon, ebay, ask.com,google.com

[junits15]

I already got a power supply a loooooong time ago, its an xbox 360 psu, those things are awesome!

[lloydrmc]

A lot of computer power supplies will do this no problem.

[iurius]

You should use two (or 3) power supplies together with more peltiers.

[mr. clean]

oh oh oh u could make the 14 amp supply from an old microwave transformer just chisel away the smaller 2000 volt windings and wrap it with some 10 gauge wire until it puts out 14 amps at 12 volts but i think that wire thickness determines the amount of amps idk im not sure and u could just buy some beefy diodes to make the voltage dc and a capicitor but on the other hand is it possible to force too power into a peltier or will it just use what it needs?

[junits15]

ive actually already got a power supply :) my xbox 360 just dies so Im taking the power brick from that is has a 16 amp 12v rail and a 1 amp 5 volt rail

[mr. clean]

ur lucky. im gonna try my idea and if ur peltier takes 14 amps wont the 16 amp power supply fry the peltier?

[junits15]

no 16 amps is the max current that can be drawn from the psu, 14 amps os the amount the TEC will draw, so it wont fry. btw you can get 360 PSUs on ebay for $15-$20

[mr. clean]

Ok thanks now i don't have to worry and that's a good idea i think i will get 1 of those or i could make a power supply (its gonna be a giant wallwart) and i could spend the money on a giant peltier idk.

[junits15]

do whatever you want :) It's all for fun anyway.

[mr. clean]

u can also buy an rv power converter they usually put out around 45 amps

[Rottom]

i think this probably would work better if you flipped the design a 180 so the cool side is down besides that great idea for a peliter cooler. ty for the design starting mine now if i remember to i will post some photos of it if i dont kill myself or blow a fuse lmao jk jk. well anyways ty for the great idea.

[Daniel Deacon]

I don't think pelter coolers have the balls for it.
might as well get an old refrigerator or and old car air conditioning unit and adding an electric motor to it (properly the hard idea as car a/c's are powered by the engines fan belt)

there about 10% efficient so they cant 'cool' the air down unless you extract air out the housing however you can make a localised air conditioning unit say under your duvet that would work as long as the air is going back out into the room.

I myself made one of these except it had an 'icepack' instead of a pelter cooler a while ago (refer to my instructable) I made that as a desk cooler and it did work quite well. I also did use it for my bed at very warm nights this helped a lot.

when I measured the air it was around 7c depending how long it had been ruining it lasted around 4 hours I think till I had to replace the ice pack bank.

[harry88]

do the heatsinks have to be diferent if so why

[ginbot86]

The hot side should have a bigger heatsink to remove the hot air. The cold side can also use a larger heatsink but the time to cool itself will be longer.

[ampeyro]

how expensive is one of this peltier coolers?

[ginbot86]

The prices on these can be from a few dollars to a few hundred. You have to choose your sources well.

Personally, I find that eBay has the best prices. I just bought two modules and each cost about $4, free shipping.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/Cooler-Peltiers-TEC1-12706-Thermoelectric-Fine-12V-60W-/280705809456?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item415b5ebc30

[pedroSB]

can i put 4 our more boxes together?repeat all and glue the boxes one with other?like in the image...sorry if my english is not good i'm portuguese

[ASCAS]

Yes! you probaby can, although you need a higher amperage power supply since peliers draw alot of electricity

[pedroSB]

Thanks...

[ASCAS]

Yup i know. I been thinking of deleting this instructable. But it may support others.

[BJ2911]

Does anyone know if 12V 6A of power in a 15.7V 6A peltier still cold enough to be used in this project?

[BJ2911]

You're plans seem plausible and cheap enough to construct. I plan to build this, and will certainly post photos on Instructables, the supplies are currently in the mail.

[NoodleUK]

I'll second that. Peltiers pump heat - one side hot, one side cold. All this will do is make a stream of hot air and another stream of hot air. The peltier cooler itself uses as a minimum 50W of power though, so you have 50W added to your hot air and it's all very inefficient. If anything, this would make a slightly better hair dryer.

As steveastrouk said before, a real air cooler can cool beyond it's own power, peltiers are only used in gimmicky mini fridges or can coolers.

[mr. clean]

ive built this exact thing it doesn't look quite the same but it uses a ton of power and it works like crap it may be due to my heat sinks i used but it still sucks and it took a long time to make but with mine u can reverse the polarity with a switch to make it produce heat or cold mine may not work so good kuz i don't have a strong enough power supply ur design might work better but it will definitely need a car battery to power it

[isacco]

Please go on building a real Peltier air conditioner and publish an instructable

[ASCAS]

In my theory you should remove more heat than cold.

[thermoelectric dude]

Haha this is great i found what i been looking for. Thanks man your the best. I bet this project will work. But there is a disadvantage, peltiers draw alot of electricity. But this will work perfectly

[ASCAS]

Dont react to much it just a plan

[Hamzah]

no photo?