peltier cooler element for cooling?

[Valicious]

A peltier jockeybox is an interesting idea. I'd have to say that I'm somewhat skeptical that it will get cold enough if the peltier units that you're considering are ~50 W. It seems that people using peltiers to cool fermentation vessels rarely achieve more than a 30 F drop from ambient. I think that the problem is that peltiers are about 5-10 times less efficient than mechanical refrigerators. In any case, I will be very interested to hear how the project proceeds! My only other thought is that you should chill the glycol-water mixture from above, as that will drive free convection inside the jockey box instead of just developing a stably stratified temperature profile. I'm still waffling over whether it makes sense to build a foam box and chill it with peltiers or to get a mini-fridge and a temp. controller.

Cheers!
Max

The ones I've been looking at are about 100w. I'm thinking of putting a cheap aquarium pump in there to circulate the glycol/water.
I'm not allowed to have a big refrigerator in my apartment, so this is a way to get around that.

Val

[barleyriver]

I took apart a working 23 year old 6 cu.ft. compact fridge, flattened out the freezer comparment and bent it to wrap around the conical section of my 27 gal Blichmann. I attached the compressor and cooling grid to the wall above the fermenter with the controls inside the brew closet. The closet is simply two hollow core wood doors hinged to the walls in the corner topped with 4" styrofoam. Cools 12 gallons down in one day from 75º to 36º. Helps to cover the freezer plate with bubble wrap insulation etc. I don't see where to attach pics.

[Cold_Spring_Brew]

The ones I've been looking at are about 100w

That is a pretty powerful PET (or TEC same diff). You cold probably get away with something in the 50W - 75W range which is usually a big price break and still maintain the temps you are looking for with adequate insulation and heat exchange off the PET.

[maxwell]

Hey Barleyriver that sounds like a great solution. I would be really interested in seeing pictures of that. After thinking over the peltier foam box idea, I think that I'll end up just getting a dedicated fridge for fermentation. The footprint is essentially the same as the son of fermentation chiller box and the hassle factor is way lower.

[barleyriver]

Hey Barleyriver that sounds like a great solution. I would be really interested in seeing pictures of that. After thinking over the peltier foam box idea, I think that I'll end up just getting a dedicated fridge for fermentation. The footprint is essentially the same as the son of fermentation chiller box and the hassle factor is way lower.

Here you go-

[astrobrew]

To make the cooler work better or to fix one from a garage sale the common problem is that the fins get filled with dirt. The cooler fan can't cool the heat sink so the cooling drops. I wanted to move more air over fins to make it work better but never had time to test it.

Steve