Karl Vorwerk wrote:

Anyone know anything about Peltier coolers. A friend of mine wants to cool
12"x15"x30" glass vivarium a maximum of 20-30 degrees farienhieght below
ambient temperature. It's long term for a salamander. A friend of hers got
her a surplus Peltier cooler. Which I installed. It didn't drop the
temperature very much inside the vivarium. After doing some research I don't
think it's powerful enough. As far as I know she doesn't have any specs on
it.
So the questions a
Is this a good way of cooling in this situation? Got any better suggestions?
Would house insulation sheet foam on 5 sides make an appreciable difference?
My first suggestion was air-condition the room but she doesn't like
air-conditioning. I'm in Hawaii so ambient temperatures are 59-90
farienhieght.
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.

Karl


Peltier's are inefficient (you've been told that). They conduct heat as
well or better than they pump it (they're metal). You want to have a
BIG heatsink/radiator on the hot side and a BIG heatsink/radiator on the
cold side. With fans. Insulating the vivarium would be a good idea.

I heard a suggestion to use a mini-fridge -- I second that, but get a
real one with a compressor. Or use water cooler, set the water
temperature & circulate it through the vivarium (probably closed-cycle
through some piping in the soil). Make sure that getting too cold won't
hurt the little beasty, and if so put in some failsafes on the
temperature regulation.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com