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.
You are very, very mistaken. Why do they build water turbines at the bottom of thousand-foot dams? If a generator were no harder to turn as the electrical load went up, why wouldn't the dribble from a downspout suffice to light up NYC?
Conservation of energy, one of the most fundamental axioms of physics, is at stake.
Cut the attitude, you don't know what you're talking about.
A couple of points...
It says GM rejected the idea in 1964.
Seems like a lot has changed since then. I wouldn't be surprised if GM has re-evaluated these devices as time goes on.
Also, GM (and other automotive manufacturers) are transistioning from the 12V system to a larger one (48v? - I can't remember).
Using the higher-voltage system may make these devices more practical. GM may be waiting until after the higher-voltage platforms are rolled out to implement this type of cooling device.
That's because it doesn't take much power to charge a nearly-charged battery, while it takes quite a lot of power to run a compressor, or, more fundamentally, to cool the interior of the vehicle on a hot day. If you had enough Peltier devices to cool the inside, it would draw a hell of a lot more current than trickle-charging a nearly-fully-charged battery - and that would increase the torque necessary to turn the alternator by a corresponding amount.
but the enviro wackos will be used by the patent owners to mandate its use despite being so inefficient.
(kind of like developers using nature conservancy to control land prices and competition.)
"When will Detroit ever learn!"
When the big 3 are all foreign owned and forced to innovate, or seek other employment.
Again, you are mistaken. Very mistaken.
It's a nice story, but in the end I think GM was right. The thermoelectric Chips produce more heat than cold. Where is the heat dissipated to and where is the electricty going to come from? You literally have to create enough energy to heat the one side of the chip 25 degrees in order to cool the other side of the chip 25 degrees and you need to create enough energy to do both. For instance, it requires up to about 50 watts to cool a computer chip. What is it going to take to cool the inside of an SUV? I'd say probably about 5000 watts.
I suspect that you're going to need a generator/alternator that sucks more gas than an air conditioner.
Oh really??? Where does the energy come from perchance??? Are you a rocket surgeon or something???
"Take a physics class before you embarass yourself anymore."
Wow, go easy. Not everyone is as brilliant as you are.
But I would say, an alternator under load is not nearly as costly to run, in terms of mechanical load, as a running A/C compressor. It's not free energy, but it is low cost.
had a physics teacher who had a series of regular bulb lights wired onto a generator powered by an exercise bicycle.
One light was not hard. Two lights required more pedaling.
and so on until five lights were lit and it was like going up a steep hill.
It demonstrates load and resistance very very very well.
I discussed this device with GM in the 1960's (when I worked there). A co-worker had actually built one in the 1950's. It was invented in the early 1800's.
The problem is that it is very inefficient. It produces far fewer BTU's of cooling for the same amount of engine energy, than a current air conditioner does. Air conditioner requirements include quick, cold air on hot days, and sufficient cold air to cool the vehicle at all speeds in very hot conditions. If a Peltier device was built that met the same requirements, it would use more engine power than the current air conditioner requires.
Huh! You are just repeating what I said. You can't argue that it is an efficient or effective system though, because it simply is not. Do you always turn the faucet on full to fill a glass with water? Do you set your stove burner on full to warm up some soup. Do you accelerate your car to full speed and then slam on the brakes at the next stop light? Of course not, and yet this is how A/C works. How many times have you heard people complain that A/C leaves them either too hot or too cold? It is inefficient if you are using more energy than is actually needed at a given time. The solution has been to run the A/C and add warm air so you avoid the uncomfortable cycling and can zone different parts of living space to specific temperatures. You trade off energy efficiency for comfort.
Mark
WRONG! As the electrical load increases it requires more power to turn the alternator. You're describing perpetual motion of the first kind.
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