Saturday, July 2, 2011

Airconditioning for the cheap

It's a hot summer and it's not getting colder running my pc all day long.
So i decided to do something about the heat inside my room:

Read more after the break!
At first I have to explain what a peltier-element does:
If you hook it up to a battery, one side will cool and the other site will get hot.

I placed the element in between two passive coolers one knows from your pc:




Its important not to use any metal pieces to hold the coolers together due to metal's heat conducting ability.
The following animation shows the construction of the whole system:



Now there's a schematic for you:


This is what it looks like when its closed:


I added an internal power supply and some tubes conducting away the cold and warm air.


 Its pretty power consuming, but see for yourself (operating voltage 18V):

Its totally worth it! Cold air into my room and hot air going outside! Due to pc fans not very noisy - summer heat defeated!




47 Comments:

  1. I need to build me one of those, seriously. Hats off to you, my good sir.

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  2. thats a good effort, i should try to do it..

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  3. Poor mans air con :D Going to give it a try if I got some spare parts :]

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  4. That's awesome man :D now i can save some money off my $50 a month electric bill :P

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  5. haha i can't believe no ones thought of this. Nice!

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  6. What delta temp could you achieve with this?

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  7. This is absolutely amazing and so interesting

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  8. how much has this lowered your temperature

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  9. How much power exactly does it consume? 4kW?

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  10. Omg.. not 4kw... its 4.16A and 18V = 74 WATT.
    The Peltier elements are too ineffective.

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  11. lol the real conditioners consumes 2-4kW so I guess it's effective comparing to them

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  12. Lol, but the real conditioners coldup the entire room, i think this cant :)

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  13. how long can you leave that running. Looks like it would over heat pretty bad.

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  14. great idea, no doubt. i just wonder how well it works.

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  15. hi frnd.. good work..
    i hav made a dehumidifier myself using the peltier jn.
    i doubt how much efficient it would be..
    no other details about the condensate water, working hour cooling of the hot-side heat sink..??!!

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  16. Great post now that summers rolling around!

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  17. wow...i like that DIY cooling !

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  18. Oh my gosh, that is awesome!! You're really crafty! I'll definitely need to build this for my bedroom, it gets so freaking hot.

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  19. Have I ever told you I love your work? :D
    I really want to do this now... you should make your own little shop on eBay, I'd buy that :)

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  20. Wow that's cool! Does it work well? alphabetalife.blogspot.com

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  21. Great tutorial, you are very crafty, unlike myself ;_;

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  22. Brilliant blog! followed and +1

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  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  24. This is great i must try it at home.

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  25. This is freaking awesome.

    I might just build something like this for my pc :D

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  26. wow, awesome work, and i think i have everything i need arround the house!

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  27. Wow, creative and useful. Nice

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  28. I would rather do this than spend $300 on a real conditioner. haha

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  29. LOL this is pretty creative. I'll tro to make one when I have the time

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  30. Hehe, I'd be surprised if it wasn't power consuming. Thought i was in a german blog at first, then saw your schematic at the bottom.

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  31. omg that so smart, i love your skills!

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  32. With few adjustments this one might be very useful for cooling a small 3x4m room. Awesome idea man! Where can I find peltier plate like the one you showed us?

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  33. Anonymous you could get one from a newer used PC I made the whole thing and realised that my old PC did not have a peltier element xD

    new are quite expensive so make sure you got it before you start

    Also your power supply will produce a lot of heat so make sure it's not in the same room or hang it out the window like a badass

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  34. Ive made the same thing when I was 14 lol!

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  35. Awesome!! Great tutorial, mate.

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  36. Excellent little gadget great work with it :)

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  37. 2 extra fan doesnt mean less noise, just helps cooling.

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  39. As a Newbie, I enjoyed reading your blog and the way you have described in your blog post about Air Conditioning. I really so glad after reading your blog.

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  40. But is it safe to use? It could cause a great danger if it fails and cause a fire.

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  41. Love the post, you make it sound so simple that I may dare to gather courage and do it. Thanks for putting this together and sharing it! AC Repair Boca Raton

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