Posted on 07/21/2005 7:00:33 AM PDT by TChris
Physics students: They came up with an environmentally friendly, economical air conditioner
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
hope it works. I remember the ROVAC invention of the 70's that was supposed to do the same, however.
"Ozone is created by solar radiation (light) impacting the atmosphere in conjunction with the earths magnetic field.. "
My college physics professor used to just laugh about the ozone hole nonsense. Given how ozone is created, it would be impossible for humans to get rid of ozone if we wanted to do so. O2 plus sunlight, or other energy, such as a lightning flash, yeilds O3.
Yet another scam pulled on the sheeple. The Freon thing was a master scam pulled off by Dupont. Their patent had just about run out on Freon. Can you imagine, the new, environmentally friendly refridgerant just happened to be made and patented by Dupont?
Go figure.
I kids like this.
Ground 'em.
They need to be inside playing video games or something...
(sarcasm)
I'm assuming they put a bunch of Peltier chips behind a fan and it blows cool air.
Now I don't know a thing about air conditioning or physics, but supposedly today's A/C systems can dehumidify the air also. I don't see how these chips can do that. Just blow cool air around.
Nevertheless, the boys deserve credit for coming up with this idea.
I'm not impressed. How are they dissipating the heat from the 'hot' side of the peltier devices? And I agree that there is no dehumidification being performed. Finally, these devices use a tremendous amount of current.
I would like to see an analysis of energy savings. My initial hunch is that there would be none.
Gum
Peltier Effect thermoelectric modules are notoriously ineffiecient compared to a compression refrigeration cycle.
Given the large amount of electrical activity in the upper atmosphere, the balance between these two equations favors the accumulation of a certain level of ozone.
The deal with Freon and with a great number of chlorinated hydrocarbons is that they shift that balance by catalyzing the reaction that degrades ozone, causing the amount of ozone to drop. It doesn't get rid of it. But it does degrade it to the point that there's not as much ozone to absorb the ultraviolet, and more of it gets to the ground that present organisms have evolved to handle. Since it's a catalyst and not a participant, the Freon isn't consumed in the reaction. And since it's not degraded itself very quickly, a little goes a long way. So your college professor is right in that the ozone isn't all going to go away, but he's wrong if he thinks that there's not a problem presently.
Freon is heavier than air. But so is Carbon Dioxide, and there's still some of it in the upper atmosphere. You get enough of the stuff at ground level, and some of it's going to mix in the upper air.
Dehumidification is a result of the cooling of the air. Warm air can hold more moisture than cool air. The manner in which warm air is cooled isn't relevant.
"the invention is pretty nifty nonetheless""
It's not clear from the article what they "invented"" here, however teens putting something like this together is in itself impressive.
Peltier effect air coolers have been available for equipment racks for years. The problem is that they don't have near the coefficient of performance of a conventional air conditioner.
They seem to be suggesting that taking power from the car's electrical system somehow gobbles up less fuel than using a fan belt.
Now if they were using a peltier device to scavenge waste heat from the engine and then using the power from that device to cool the car... But that's not what the article suggests.
The dehumidification would work the same way: water vapour would condense on the cold part. Computer hotrodders who use peltier devices to cool their overclocked CPUs have to take steps to keep condensate away from the electronics.
It doesn't. Well, it does cool, I'm sure, but Peltier systems are horribly inefficient compared to phase change (A/C) systems for something as large as a car.
"The Freon thing was a master scam pulled off by Dupont. Their patent had just about run out on Freon. Can you imagine, the new, environmentally friendly refridgerant just happened to be made and patented by Dupont?"
Interesting.
Neat if it works as described.
You're going to need a bigger generator on the car to run it that way. Net loss of usable energy.
Why not take heat from the exhaust by the same method to generate electricity. A combined catalytic converter and peltier generator. An exhaust turbo generator may also help. Combine that with the hybrid electric.
Years ago Popular Science (or was it Popular Mechanics) had an article where they tied a freon powered engine to a gas engine to scavange power from the waste heat.
Most of the energy generated from the internal combustion engine is waste heat. Use the waste heat.
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