Posted on 07/06/2005 8:33:43 AM PDT by skyman
Really cool invention brings teens awards Physics students: They came up with an environmentally friendly, economical air conditioner By Jessica Ravitz The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune
BLUFFDALE - The code name, Space Beast, was one they came up with in the wee hours of the night.
Tyler Lyon, Daniel Winegar and Chad Thornley were overtired and giddy as they tackled a science fair project. Their idea: Eliminate the use of Freon in automobile air-conditioning systems by relying on the Peltier effect - of course.
"We aren't planning our lives around making air conditioners," Lyon explained. "We wanted to do something to help the environment and the economy."
But what began as a Riverton High School physics class assignment nearly two years ago has morphed into an award-winning, internationally recognized invention.
Lyon and Winegar, two recent Riverton graduates - Thornley graduated in 2004 and is now on an LDS Church mission - won the first-ever Ricoh Sustainable Development Award in May when they competed against 1,400 other worldwide invitation-only entries at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix.
Aside from the $50,000 college scholarship the two 18-year-olds will share, the budding engineers are jetting off to Japan today for a 10-day visit on Ricoh's dime. The office equipment and electronics company, a leader in the field of sustainable development, has invited the Utahns to attend the World Expo, address Ricoh executives, tour their research and development lab, meet with government officials - including the Minister of the Environment - and sit down with Tokyo University professors.
"It's been a total, unbelievable dream," marveled Tyler's mom, Diane Lyon, last week. "They're just typical boys. But when someone believes in you, amazing things can happen."
Physics teacher Kari Lewis, who recently left Riverton High, said trusting in Lyon and Winegar was easy.
"They came up with this idea . . . and they made it work," she said. "It's a perfect solution to an incredible problem."
Today, the young inventors say, U.S. drivers use about 7.9 billion gallons of fuel each year to run their air-conditioners, which draw power from the engine. By adopting their contraption - which taps into the electrical system, using fans to blow hot air through five Peltier chips and then releasing cold air - they say the country stands to save 3.9 billion gallons of fuel annually, or about $10 billion based on current gas prices.
Furthermore, the product would free drivers from Freon - which despite improvements, remains an ozone-depleting chemical in current air-conditioners. The Peltier chips, which they purchased on eBay for $9.99 each, have a life span of 20 to 30 years and an unfaltering cooling capacity. And like every component in the Space Beast, which can be minimized in size to about 2 inches in width, the chips are recyclable.
As a young boy, Lyon's parents said he tore apart and reassembled household electronics - CD players, clocks, an old stereo that didn't work until he fixed it. And while Daniel's mom, LouAnn Winegar, was grateful her son was "not a take-apart-person," she said her boy's love for science, engineering and computers has been consistent.
"It's nice to see all of his years of interest and hard work being recognized," she said.
The two-year process of fine-tuning, however, was not without its glitches. When the teens were trying to convert a blow-dryer fan from AC to DC power, a miswiring gave Lyon a doozy of a shock - "a low-enough amp that it couldn't really stop my heart," he said. And there was that computer power strip that they managed to ignite, before throwing it outside in the snow, only to retrieve it two days later to recycle its parts.
Despite the setbacks, and bouts of procrastination, the teens didn't give up. When they weren't playing computer games, skiing, snowboarding or, in Lyon's case, rock-climbing, they buckled down, sometimes working through the night. Their focus nearly cost them graduation - they had to scramble to make up work in other classes - but they accomplished what others couldn't.
After they had already begun their work, Lyon and Winegar learned about a 1964 General Motors analysis that explored the idea before the car company concluded it wasn't possible.
Going in with open minds, however, the teens were not deterred and pulled off what GM rejected. "Nobody told them it couldn't be done," Robert Lyon, Tyler's dad, said.
The first time he felt a cold gust of air successfully come through the system, Winegar said he remembers saying: "We may actually have something here."
Looks like they do. A Salt Lake City attorney is working to secure a patent. The Environmental Protection Agency called to express interest Tuesday morning. And though repeated attempts to communicate with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. have gone unanswered, high officials in Japan - an ocean away - are awaiting the arrival of Riverton's young inventors.
"It is unlikely that such an invention would be of any benefit as a typical auto AC unit has at least a 12,000 BTU capacity which would equal about 3.5 kW or about 5 HP. Since a typical 2 inch TE cooler component uses about 35 Watts one would need about 100 pieces and figure out a way to cool the hot side and deliver cabin air to the cool sides to circulate. It ain't gonna happen."
Thanks, that explains it, the boys have a highly underpowered refrigeration unit. Something just didn't smell right, because I've been starting o look at these things too.
Bravo!
I, along with about 4 other people already did, you arrogant dumbass.
Thats what I thought before I thunk it out. :)
How come everyone knows what a Peltier chip is except me? And why didn't anyone in the AC business think of this before? A 50% savings? Something smells fishy.
They each got $25k college scholarships?
Now that could be legit. But there are variable-speed central air units now. Maybe variable-speed car A/C units are possible.
You wouldn't believe what the A/C does to my acceleration-challenged Saturn. It can barely make it uphill with the A/C on.
Questionable gas savings aside, I want cold air coming from my AC. I mean my wife-needs-to-wear-a-sweater-while-riding-with-me-cold. Can these chips deliver that?
Which is a good thing!
If personal sh_t is used against me in an argument I Will turn on that person in kind.
Well said...
Hybrid technology needs a lot of work but it has come a long way. I myself have studied off and on the alternative energy sources for about 30 years. My favorite for me now is wood gas which can use sawdust from my sawmill to power a tractor to power the sawmill. Most US engineering is simple minded and dumps byproducts in stead of using them.
Actually, I believe the alternator most certainly becomes harder to turn as the electrical load increases.
I believe that's the precise point you've been called on in these discussions.
Cheers,
Lloyd
Ok, now I'll join the chorus and say that you, sir are a complete moron.
Cheers,
Lloyd
But in the case of cooling the cabin of a vehicle and since we're dumping that heat outside the cabin, do we really care if the heat load goes up considerably? i.e. obviously the real efficiency of these chips is far less than other approaches, but in this specific application, are we really required to account for the additional heat dumped outside the cabin?
I don't see that it matters if the total heat to be dumped increases by 1000% as long as the ability to dump it exists and the cooling effect inside the cabin succeeds.
(actually, now that I'm thinking about it..... if we put ten million vehicles on the road with a 1000% increase in the heat being dumped... that is probably a measurable effect to "global warming". Ironic isn't it that these kids won an award based on the environmental impact? :-) )
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