Peltier controlled fermentationy device

[BenB]

A much cheaper way of getting 50A of 12v lovelyness would be to get a hot swapable server PSU. You can get them on Ebay for about £15. I've got one at work from our old server which I keep on looking at and wondering what I can do with!!! They have a trad kettle lead at one end and big old copper contracts for friction fit contacts at the other which can also be used for soldering. Cheap as chips and will last forever...

[chris2012]

BenB, are you sure they do 50A on a single 12V rail though?

I'm just looking @ http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151539949939? ... EBIDX%3AIT

Do you know if that'd have cables coming out of the back of it, or how i'd connect stuff to it, as i've never used such a PSU?

I just jam wires in a PC PSU at the moment.

cheers

Chris

[BenB]

Not sure whether that is single rail or not.... But it's a well trodden path with leccy r/c fliers who will have done the hard work for you.....


https://sites.google.com/site/tjinguyte ... ects/HP47A

[chris2012]

Cheers, I managed to find one of them on ebay, which I may get, cheers for the heads up!

[BenB]

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1750411

for a 700 watt supply. Again the PSU is about £15 delivered.....

[setmash]

Thanks you've got me in to research mode on this lol just a thought you could make your h bridge from a double pole change over relay , I can draw you a diagram if you need it. Looking forward to your next test results. Cam you try it in a fixed amount of water say 10 liters and measure start plus end temps and time to achieve those temps. We can then work out just what this baby is capable of

[chris2012]

Cheers, I've actually got h-bridge modules which use MOSFETs (http://www.infineon.com/dgdl/bts7960b-p ... 782ebd6b60) looks like they can do approx 30A according to the datasheet.

Yeah I'm definitely going to do an experiment like that, I have a box of 1-wire temp probes I can use to measure ambient, cooling water and main water temperatures, if I can manage
to find them heh.

I'm hopefully gonna buy one of those server PSUs tonight.

[dean_wales]

I am so desperate to find a direct source of cooling, such as these peltiers, which is quite and compact. But that actually work!

Everything I have seen so far has been really disappointing. Trust me I have scoured the net. Watching with interest...

[phil.dadd]

Very interesting device. I'm very interested in using one to make a custom kegerator (can build to my own size/shape, rather than relying on a fridge). How cold is the air coming off this running normally? Do you think it could chill a chamber fitting say 3 kegs well enough?

Though for the price I may just get one and experiment anyway...

[BenB]

The tricky bit is balancing the hot side, cold side and temperature. It can be done - search military peltier fridges. Just takes some know how. Just don't expect them to work without fettling....

[Wonkydonkey]

This maybe I bit off topic, but I have one of those type things, but it's still in in the lid of the cool box, ( those cool boxes that can run from 240ac or 12vdc ) which is now covering a big hole in the back of a wooden insulated box that I made. To which I can put one cornie in. It works but not that well, ie it cools beer down but struggles to get it lower than 10c but I'm happy to keep my beer at 12/13c and don't need it for anything else. So have not tried the heating side.

It's nothing special but I did not have room for a fridge.

Wonky

I

[chris2012]

I just saw one of those type of coolboxes on ebay, when looking for a tiny one to use for a water resevoir. They look very interesting.

Do you know what wattage your coolbox takes?

[Wonkydonkey]

I just saw one of those type of coolboxes on ebay, when looking for a tiny one to use for a water resevoir. They look very interesting.

Do you know what wattage your coolbox takes?

Errr, not really, unless you mean 12v 5a.
I will see if I can find the one I brought off ebay.

Edit: this one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131264360770? ... EBIDX%3AIT
Temp cont,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271645131367? ... EBIDX%3AIT

I'm not that electrical minded, as you may have guessed.

I just looked around, found what I thought would work and gave it a go.

I could do a separate post about this as I don't want to hijack this one. But I noticed it your post, so I guess it's ok,
Edit: just found the only pic I took of it, if you can read it.


As I can't read off the dam pic I posted, I'll have to type it.
220-240v cool mode 68w warm 57w
12v. Cool mode 52w warm mode 45w
Wonky

[chris2012]

Cheers! Really appreciate that.

I'm hoping as mine is ~200W it'll be able to cool the fermenter < 10C

[setmash]

Chris if you find the performance is not quite there then you could always buy a second one and put them in series

Im trying to decide what to do to cool and heat my conical. Ive decided a fridge is not for me right now. Im looking at a similar approach to Chris or maybe even direct mounting on the conical - but i would need to get the aluminium block machined which could be tricky.


Here is the Morebeer conical with TEC devices attached
http://www.morebeer.com/products/ultima ... allon.html

Here is a white paper on how to do this from Stout tanks.
http://conical-fermenter.com/Temperatur ... dSetup.pdf

They also sell pre-milled blocks for their conical
http://conical-fermenter.com/SP400PK-Pe ... g-Kit.html