Water Recirculation with Peltier Cooler

[dewdrs]

Hey Everybody,

Saw these folks using Peltier modules to make water coolers and the light bulb went off! Why not adapt this module to cool water for my homemade column water cooling system?

So I got a couple of Peltier modules, a water block, and grabbed a heat sink and a spare PC power supply for power and hacked together a quick cooler.

Doesn't look like much. Used apower strip to turn it on and off and my initial test showed a temperature improvement of more than 5 degrees in about 15 minutes leading me to think it might keep up with my coolant needs.

Had a 3 gallon batch of All Bran ready to run so I tried it out. Kept it around 82-84 F for most of the run but I had some frozen water bottles I used and a couple of hand fulls of ice towards the end when the temperature got out of control.

Was hoping for a jar of 190 but due to limited time I started too hot. Still need to modify my water management system to better control water flow into the column.

I pulled a nice jar of 180 proof and another jar of 170 proof before I called it quits so nice spirit run all in all.

Still the experiment with the Peltier module was promising. I have another Peltier module and heat sink so I might lump two together to see if it can keep up next time.

[Kareltje]

Nice experiment!
Can you use it to cool the vapour and at the same time heat the boiler? Like a heat pump, more or less?

[Yummyrum]

They have been discussed before .

Things to think about : A typical Peltier device consumes around 50-60 watts

If you are trying to use one to remove the heat from a typical 1500watt electric boiler you would need around 25 a 30 of them
You would also need a 12 volt power supply that can supply 1500watts or a bank of smaller ones .

Karaltje’s idea of using one as a heat pump is a good idea . The removed heat goes back into the boiler theoretically reducing the amount of power required by the boiler element . These things are not 100% efficient so additional heating would be required .
I can’t see why it couldn’t work but it would be a very expensive project to be of practical use IMO

Still , good to see some experimenting . Post us your results .

[googe]

Ive been interested in these latley for another project. I read if you piggyback them you get more efficientcy?.

[Yummyrum]

Ive been interested in these latley for another project. I read if you piggyback them you get more efficientcy?.

Do you mean stack one on top of the other Googe ?

If so then no , its the other way ....it actually makes it worse . The second one has to remove the heat from the first PLUS the heat it generated itself as part of the process ( because they are not 100% efficient and create their own heat )

I know this because I made a Wilsons cloud chamber where I had to cool close to -30 DegC . The first one could only run with about 5-6 volts instead of 12 otherwise it overwhelmed the second one.

EDIT : Googe , Sorry I was talking about stacking the actual peltier devises . Just realized maybe you were talking about series connecting those water lines in the pic The OP posted ...yes that would work because the heat is being removed by each individual heat sink