One of my fine readers sent this in a few days ago, and since we’ve been obsessing about AC today, this is a good time to share:
Lyon and Winegar, two recent Riverton graduates - Thornley graduated in 2004 and is now on an LDS Church mission - won the first-ever Ricoh Sustainable Development Award in May when they competed against 1,400 other worldwide invitation-only entries at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix.
Aside from the $50,000 college scholarship the two 18-year-olds will share, the budding engineers are jetting off to Japan today for a 10-day visit on Ricoh’s dime. The office equipment and electronics company, a leader in the field of sustainable development, has invited the Utahns to attend the World Expo, address Ricoh executives, tour their research and development lab, meet with government officials - including the Minister of the Environment - and sit down with Tokyo University professors.
“It’s been a total, unbelievable dream,” marveled Tyler’s mom, Diane Lyon, last week. “They’re just typical boys. But when someone believes in you, amazing things can happen.”
Physics teacher Kari Lewis, who recently left Riverton High, said trusting in Lyon and Winegar was easy.
“They came up with this idea . . . and they made it work,” she said. “It’s a perfect solution to an incredible problem.”
Today, the young inventors say, U.S. drivers use about 7.9 billion gallons of fuel each year to run their air-conditioners, which draw power from the engine. By adopting their contraption - which taps into the electrical system, using fans to blow hot air through five Peltier chips and then releasing cold air - they say the country stands to save 3.9 billion gallons of fuel annually, or about $10 billion based on current gas prices.
Furthermore, the product would free drivers from Freon - which despite improvements, remains an ozone-depleting chemical in current air-conditioners. The Peltier chips, which they purchased on eBay for $9.99 each, have a life span of 20 to 30 years and an unfaltering cooling capacity. And like every component in the Space Beast, which can be minimized in size to about 2 inches in width, the chips are recyclable.
I wish articles like this would provide references to the engineering calculations involved. Peltier chips do cool, but they are extremely inefficient. There is nothing in the original article that says what the advantage is over the traditional AC system. Nor does the article say where the cooling electricity comes from. Honestly, I can’t tell whether this is a good thing or a will o’the wisp, but I suspect when all the calculations are done, it will be the latter. But hey, I’d like a free trip to Japan, too….
I concur with John. However newspaper articles rarely provide the technical details. Reviewing the original paper would be nice.
Power for the electrical system must come from the engine. The power needed to run a Peltier chip cooling system should be compared to the power needeed to run the Freon cooling system to determine which impacts fuel mileage more. They both will. Lots of other techie things to review also. It raises so many fun questions.
While it is possible there has been an improvement in Peltier chip efficiency, I have not heard about it. Had it occurred I doubt the improved chips would be available on E-Bay. Nor would they be inexprensive.
What I do like is the reduction in Freon use. Then it’s only gasoline byproducts we need to worry about.
I agree with both John and Jim, but I do think there are ways around the inefficiency of the chips, particularly as the kids have forced the cooling with “blowing hot air” onto the system, which with the constant current, would increase the cooling effect. Using waste heat from the engine would provide an ideal source for the “hot air” required.
Does anyone know a contact to these kids? Or have access to more info on their system as it would provide many answers to the efficiency questions.