The method is only supposed to work in places where heat from the sunlight is a problem and people suffer from heat stroke.

 

hi,
Check thru the 12V panel versions,
This one has the panel and controller, 12V rated.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/80w-Sola...271751?hash=item35fe73d907:g:T3QAAOSwbwlXAoYL

It seems an expensive way of keeping cool..
E

Would i be able to find a solar panel under 3 ft to power it up?
since I would be in an area where i receive 6kWh/m2/day. Let us say I find a panel rater at 18% efficiency that would mean I can produce around 1080 Wh/m2/day. so a panel under 3 ft would be able to produce enough to power cooling unit that consumes 360 Wh?

 

I'm wondering if there isn't a more effective solution. I have a small air conditioner that draws about 350W. It has a powerful fan, so I'd guess the fan alone is 100W or more, leaving ~250W for the compressor. If you could find a compressor that's 1/3rd that size, you'd get a lot more cooling capacity from whatever panel you end up with, compared to a peltier cooler. I have no idea where to look for such a small cooling system, maybe in a tiny refrigerator.

All I'm saying is that vapor recompression cooling is FAR more efficient than a peltier. The latter is only used where other constraints eliminate the possibility of vapor recompression.

 

This is a very small amount of cooling power ...Is it a compressor ???

If peltier they are so inefficient it would be a waste of time .....

I would first run the cooler you plan to use , before buying panels and batteries , I doubt you will notice any significant cooling effect .....

If your climate is relatively dry a better way maybe evaporative cooling a big fan running the air over a moist surface , often used to keep greenhouses cool , warm dry air enters ....humid cool air exits the unit.

 

Hi everybody,
I need a little help with choosing the right solar panel to run my miniature cooling unit. The total power required for it would be 74 watts and it's supposed to run for a good 5 hours. so that's around 0.35kWh worth of energy required. any recommendation on which solar panel i should use? also if need to run it on the battery what battery back it up for 5 hours? My size requirement for the solar panel is small as-well I do not need a panel bigger than 3 inches. I have attached the power budget in the thread

thanks!

Just a crazy off the wall thought - could you use a peltier module and cut out the "middle man". Or do you need to charge a battery to keep it going in the shade?

 

I see from your first post this is a peltier unit ... and you are somewhere pretty hot , people in danger of heat stroke !!

From Wikipedia ....In refrigeration applications, thermoelectric junctions have about 1/4th the efficiency compared to conventional means (they offer around 10–15% efficiency of the ideal Carnot cyclerefrigerator, compared with 40–60% achieved by conventional compression-cycle systems....

A reasonable size AC unit in a moderately hot climate for one room is about 2.5Kw ...this is a compressor driven system , 4 times more effective than peltier ...so you need a 10KW peltier unit to have the same effect ....

You are trying to do this with 75W ..... Less than ONE Percent of what is needed

The only way you may notice some small effect is if the person was in a plastic bubble

Look into evaporative cooling .

 

Just a crazy off the wall thought - could you use a peltier module and cut out the "middle man". Or do you need to charge a battery to keep it going in the shade?

I do not need a battery to keep it going in the shade.

 

I see from your first post this is a peltier unit ... and you are somewhere pretty hot , people in danger of heat stroke !!

From Wikipedia ....In refrigeration applications, thermoelectric junctions have about 1/4th the efficiency compared to conventional means (they offer around 10–15% efficiency of the ideal Carnot cyclerefrigerator, compared with 40–60% achieved by conventional compression-cycle systems....

A reasonable size AC unit in a moderately hot climate for one room is about 2.5Kw ...this is a compressor driven system , 4 times more effective than peltier ...so you need a 10KW peltier unit to have the same effect ..
You are trying to do this with 75W ..... Less than ONE Percent of what is needed

The only way you may notice some small effect is if the person was in a plastic bubble

Look into evaporative cooling .

My initial thought was to use an evaporative cooler and i did my working on that as well but as far as it stands now i have to use the Peltier cooler to cool down a small 3ftx2ftx2ft box. any help on the solar panel? It needs to fix on top of the box

 

hi Hassan,
If I was making this project I would consider stripping down and reworking a 12V compressor mini fridge..
I would not consider the Peltier option, very inefficient.

E

 

hi Hassan,
If I was making this project I would consider stripping down and reworking a 12V compressor mini fridge..
I would not consider the Peltier option, very inefficient.

E

I presented this idea several times but my professor doesn't want to listen. IDK why he wants me to do it this way.

 

OK, no problem.
The specification you have to work to seems very restricting.
I would be interested in seeing the final project, when you have it working.

E

 

My initial thought was to use an evaporative cooler and i did my working on that as well but as far as it stands now i have to use the Peltier cooler to cool down a small 3ftx2ftx2ft box. any help on the solar panel? It needs to fix on top of the box

Insulation is crucial. 12 cubic feet strikes me as huge for a peltier project. A white or reflective surface will help as well.

I’d look for a used wine cooler and use the cooling module from that - the fans, heat sinks, and TEC modules. Maybe even the controls. But that’s me.

I wonder if your professor would accept a hybrid solution whereby you use evaporation of water on the hot side. That would dramatically increase the capacity of the cooling element. There are a bunch of projects online where people use evaporative cooling to cool the air striking the coils of their A/C. There are all sorts of problems with that but the thermodynamics make sense.