Martin_mtl Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 Has anybody succesfully built a peltier cooling system for a terrarium? I have researched the subject for some time. I have found companies that sell pre-assembled coolers. I will probably build my own to cut costs and learn stuff. I am wondering what would be better for the plants: air cooling or water cooling. Could the cold air shock the plants? Then pump circulating water inside a radiator would dissipate cold air more evenly... http://www.tetech.com/assys/air.shtml http://www.tetech.com/assys/water.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilex Posted June 21, 2006 Report Share Posted June 21, 2006 I did for a while but fast not very satisfied with the results: It's fairly difficult to keep the peltier cold. The hot part gets very hot. It's critical to insulate to death the terrarium. If well insulated you don't need so to cool it. peltiers are quite energy intensive. air cooling the peltier won't be enough One of the main peltier manufacturers has a downloadable program very useful to calculate how many, and how big, peltiers you'll need At the end it turned out to be not very efficient and quite expensive. I'm using a beer chiller now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macs Posted June 25, 2006 Report Share Posted June 25, 2006 Hi! I'm doing some experiments at the moment with a 110 Watt peltier I got at ebay for 6€. I have attached it to a PC power supply. The cold part reaches 6ºC or lower when not in contact when any surface and with the hot one fixed to a CPU cooler. I haven't had any success until now since it's not easy to make the PC power supply deliver such power and I don't find any way to use the cold it produces efficiently keeping the peltier out of the terrarium. At the end it turned out to be not very efficient and quite expensive. I'm using a beer chiller now. Did you manage to cool efficiently the terrarium ilex? I'm afraid my plants are going to roast if I don't find any solution!! This summer is going to be really hot in Spain... :cry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolzan Posted August 17, 2006 Report Share Posted August 17, 2006 @ ilex How did you manage to cool down your Terrarium with a beer chiller, what kind of beer chiller is this, and whats the price for that beer chiller. I would like to cool the Water down to 5-8°C, the cold Water cycles through a Radiator where a fan placed behind blows cool Air in the Terrarium (like the Setup in this Thread http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11266). For the cooling of the Water i thought about a Peltier, but a water - or beerchiller seems to be much more efficient. thanx in Advance best regards, Rolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilex Posted August 17, 2006 Report Share Posted August 17, 2006 I found some beer chillers that were not in good condition free. they are the kind used in bars. They chill water very fast and as much as you want (my problem was keeping it from freezing as the termostat didn't work). They usually come with a water pump, so you just chill the water and move the water to a radiator inside the terrarium, then, run a pc fan through the radiator. In summer, it gets down to 5-8 inside the terrarium, water is 2 or 3C. You can also use an acuarium chiller. These are pretier and make less noice, but are really expensive, specially in Europe. For a few plants you have a couple emergency options: - put plants in a refrigerator at night - put frozen water bottles in the terrarium (as many as you can) I found out that the peltier idea wouldn't work. You get a cold side and a hot side on the peltier. It can be somewhat tricky to transfer the cold to the terrarium, but it's even trickier to keep the hot side cool, as it gets REALLY hot fast, which means the cold part won't be cold. It takes a lot of efford to keep it cool. In any case, insulate your terrarium to death, specially bottom and sides. It's the key. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolzan Posted August 18, 2006 Report Share Posted August 18, 2006 thanx for the reply, ilex you are right, aquarium chiller are really expensive. I will look for an old beer- or waterchiller at ebay or at the beer brewery in the Neighbourhood. best regards, Rolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jefforever Posted October 13, 2006 Report Share Posted October 13, 2006 No matter what you decide to use, a peltier or even a fridge, water cooling is the easiest and efficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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