Hey all,
So my job requires me to be in my work vehicle for anywhere from 2-5 collective hours throughout the day. It's a Chevy Express. The job is demanding so I often have lots of water, but no way to cool it, or keep it cool.

My project is to use an igloo cooler with a homemade thermoelectric cooling element. By this, I mean I want to take a 12v peltier cooler sandwiched between two fans and two heatseats, the cold side and hot side will have their own heat sink and fan.

My plan was to use a 12v lead-acid battery to power the two fans and the peltier module.
My question is, is a 12v battery sufficient to power the 2 fans and peltier module?

Any other insight is appreciated

 

Your question lacks important details; You must define "2 fans and a peltier module" and "a 12v battery".

To answer your question; yes, a 12V battery is sufficient to power 2 fans and a peltier module. How is that useful?

First determine the power requirement of the cooler and then choose a battery with enough capacity to power it for the required time.

 

Does it have to be DIY?
You can buy a 12V cooler that plugs right into your 12V assessory outlet. Check out your local hardware store.

 

Does it have to be DIY?
You can buy a 12V cooler that plugs right into your 12V assessory outlet. Check out your local hardware store.

That is what I would consider. A simple turn key solution. You also need to consider power consumption as when the engine is not running you are using battery only and using an independent battery you need to really consider how long it will last. Most guys I know pack a cooler with some ice or frozen cold packs and it keeps their lunch and Gatorade, water or whatever beverages cold all day. Then they just refreeze the cold packs for the next day.

Ron

 

A 12V 75W cooler will draw about 6A. That's about the same as one headlight. You can run this off your car battery for hours. The nice thing is your car battery will get recharged once you're on the road again for a while.

 

Another vote for buy instead of make. It’s not as simple a project as you might think. It’s absolutely doable and may be fun if you’re into that sort of project, but it will take far longer than you expect to get everything working the way you want. You’ll need a thermostat, unless you can live with a small risk of freezing. You’ll want quiet fans. Lots of mechanical issues that are probably more challenging than the electronics. But you’ll want the peltier to shutdown if it overheats due to a fan failure or blockage. Lots of details to consider.