Homeproject for 55 Gallon tank (peltier!!)

[zcedric]

Good day volk

I am pretty new and I hope to post this in the right space.
I started for 2 month ago with a new project.. which is a "peltier chiller." I tried to find lots of different option to do a DIY chiller. The only possible thing I found was "peltiers."

Why did I choose so?
- quiet
- cheap (only for me, because I have lots of resources from my company)
- small

I could do this only because I have lots of experience with electronic and automation. Please do not try to rebuild this if you have no clue from electrophysik and programing. However, qeustion are welcome and i also like to hear compliments.

This post will open a case which is not finished yet. I will post a couple picture what I have together yet. But I like to post my progress here as well.
This project is not implemented to the tank yet. I do numerous of test outside of the tank first

This is the Control Station (PLC 1200 CPU from Siemens; 12VDC-24VDC controll + 24VDC power suply + alarm lights + analog amplifier for temperatur feeler; 12 VDC power suply)


On the left topside is just the power inlet and the Ethernet inlet for comunication to my Computer.

This is my heat exchanger (4xpeltier + 4 fans with 2 cooling circle)




I am running this with a little tank of 1 gallon atm. The 4 peltiers are induvidual controlled depending what temperatur I have from the water and outside.
I can cool 1 gallon of water in ca. 1h 15min from 80F° to 55F°. Which seems not to be a lot. But I actually need to hold the water only by 76F° and not by 55F°.

I will have a ΔT of ca 2 degree, which means I would like to keep my water between 75F° and 77F°. My roomtemperatur has an avg. of 80F°. My Pumps and LED Light of the tank add ca 45W of heat.

I guess I need to get rid of ca. 80-100W of heat in my tank to keep the Temperatur stedy.
My peltier chiller has around 240W of power usage and I guess the coefficien is ca. 30% which means I only get around 72W of chilled water out.

The other thing is that a petlier gets worse by higher ΔT which needs to be chiller---.

Anyway I will implement this system the firsttime the coming weekend and will make a 48h runtime test on it.

 

[jsker]

That is pretty cool.

 

[Heliarc19]

Very interesting, sounds like you know your stuff lol. does the water run through the copper?

 

[zcedric]

Very interesting, sounds like you know your stuff lol. does the water run through the copper?

Good question!
Answer:
No, the copper is out of range from the water. The copper is just to transfer the heat from the peltiers away to the fans.
The actual saltwater goes thru a good graded aluminium water block which is special coated.
Some people talking about aluminum and saltwater reacts pretty bad. But this is actualy not true if both the liquit and the aluminum have the same electric potential.
I try to get out of this with grounding the aluminum and the water to the same potential.

I thougt on doing a Titanium water block or high graded Stainless Stealwater block... but this is very expensive and the heattransfer of these metals are very, very, extremly very bad.

 

[Heliarc19]

Good question!
Answer:
No, the copper is out of range from the water. The copper is just to transfer the heat from the peltiers away to the fans.
The actual saltwater goes thru a good graded aluminium water block which is special coated.
Some people talking about aluminum and saltwater reacts pretty bad. But this is actualy not true if both the liquit and the aluminum have the same electric potential.
I try to get out of this with grounding the aluminum and the water to the same potential.

I thougt on doing a Titanium water block or high graded Stainless Stealwater block... but this is very expensive and the heattransfer of these metals are very, very, extremly very bad.

Good question!
Answer:
No, the copper is out of range from the water. The copper is just to transfer the heat from the peltiers away to the fans.
The actual saltwater goes thru a good graded aluminium water block which is special coated.
Some people talking about aluminum and saltwater reacts pretty bad. But this is actualy not true if both the liquit and the aluminum have the same electric potential.
I try to get out of this with grounding the aluminum and the water to the same potential.

I thougt on doing a Titanium water block or high graded Stainless Stealwater block... but this is very expensive and the heattransfer of these metals are very, very, extremly very bad.

Ok, keep us updated it is an awesome diy project!

 

[zcedric]

New Update:

I figured out today that my Peltiers all have the same voltage which is about 14.2VDC but every singel one of them are drawing different amps... which is from 2.5 up to 4.8A.;Sour;Sour
This leads that i say...: china products are bull***;Hurting;Hurting

I ordered new peltiers from a research lab called Victorrush, this new peltiers cost me about 3 times more per piece than those from China. The pricing is ca 9.- dollar a piece.;Drool;Spiderman

The specs are:

• Type: Thermoelectric Cooler "Peltier"
• Model: TEC1-12709
• Quantity: 2x
• Voltage: DC 12V - 15V (Max)
• Current: 9A
• Power Consumption: 136W (Max)
• Resistance: 1.30 - 1.50 ω
• Dimensions: 40 x 40 x 3.8 mm

I also ordered new and better heat contact greas which will make a better heat contact to my cooling blocks and fans.
I get the peltiers shiped to me on the 27. April which is in about 6 days.

I will post soon another update with a much stronger chiller;Cat

I keep you updated!

 

[zcedric]

It works, but it is too weak and eats way to much power.
This project is a fail.
It was still fun and excited project. I never worked with peltiers and I learned a lot.