A few of you know I've been looking at adopting a peltier cooler to cool a body of water either in an air to water intercooler setup or simply to chill a body of water or by helping cool an air to air FMIC. Pretty much anything that involves cooling the intake charge that can be adapted to a peltier setup.
As far as cooling a body of water or aiding in cooling an air to water setup that already has a radiator, I found a product by Swiftech. It's a thermoelectric liquid cooler. Basically a little device you run a current of water through that heats water going one direction and chills it going the other. Here's the link. It uses 452 watts and 34 amps @ 12 volts total, which is of course a fair bit seeing as though the stock alternator puts out [12v x 110amps] 1320 watts. Q45Tech or other knowledgeable NICO members may have to key in here and tell me if that's too big of a drain for the stock alternator or not. If it is, and lets say you've also decided you may want to run a "system" too, you can purchase an aftermarket 250amp alternator for $450 or less. Keep in mind 250amps will power a small house! This more than doubles the wattage output meaning you could easily run two of these setups and a 1000w system with room to spare. Expect to save about $100 by going down to a 170amp alternator. In any case, I'd consider this a much simpler solution than say a setup like Ford's. It has a few other advantages. These include being always on [unlike Ford's AC setup] and providing a much cooler intake charge [I'd expect well below ambient to be the norm]. The only downside I can find is that you may need a more powerful alternator. If someone would be able to tell me how much wattage there is "free" ALL the time [headlights on, stock radio blaring, etc] I'd owe ya one.
My planned attack at the intercooler setup is to weld up an insulated custom box (where the stock air box is) which surrounds the intake piping while the intake air does a U-turn back towards the plenum. In this situation you could fill it with an ice/water/antifreeze mixture which flows from the container down to the heat exchanger, then back up. At the top of the container however you mount three 200-300w [600-900w total] peltier devices [one above the intake into the container, the other at the middle of the U shape and the latter shortly before and above the exit] with large heat sinks on top of them. In doing so you'd have to make sure you ventilate the area WELL but that water/antifreeze mixture would be ICE cold.
Lastly, apparently there is a chap in Australia who added either one or two peltiers to his intercooler setup on his skyline and noticed a big difference in intake temperatures. How he supplied power to it... I have no idea. No idea who it is, nor do I have any of his contact info, but he's apparently on http://www.skylinesdownunder.com.
Corey
Peltier Discussion
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Q45tech
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"It uses 452 watts and 34 amps @ 12 volts total, which is of course a fair bit seeing as though the stock alternator puts out [12v x 110amps] 1320 watts."
Don't confuse maximium output [13.8 x 110=1500 watts] at 2500 engine rpm with output at idle of maybe 450 watts.The engine and HVAC, radio consumes half this leaving only 225 watts of reserve. Turn the lights on and AC on high and there is nothing left. Move the seat or roll a window down is from battery
Why you can't recharge a dead battery idling! Why people who get jumped at Airport and drive home at night in heat may arrive home not much better and have a dead battery in morning.
Measure the ratio of pullies: crankshaft to alternator to calculate alternator speed.
34 amps at 1300 alternator rpm.
A separate battery and alternator for the cooler.
An auxillary AC compressor chiller would cost less.
Don't confuse maximium output [13.8 x 110=1500 watts] at 2500 engine rpm with output at idle of maybe 450 watts.The engine and HVAC, radio consumes half this leaving only 225 watts of reserve. Turn the lights on and AC on high and there is nothing left. Move the seat or roll a window down is from battery
Why you can't recharge a dead battery idling! Why people who get jumped at Airport and drive home at night in heat may arrive home not much better and have a dead battery in morning.
Measure the ratio of pullies: crankshaft to alternator to calculate alternator speed.
34 amps at 1300 alternator rpm.
A separate battery and alternator for the cooler.
An auxillary AC compressor chiller would cost less.
Just thought I'd pass along my Peltier experiances. I've used a number of the "consumer" grade peltiers in experiments and projects. I'd even thought about trying to build an intercooler for my supercharger (not the Q's) and abandoned the project as I did think it was worth the effort or outcome.
They work well for thermal transfer in metal to metal applications like CPU's to heat sinks, etc. But they SUCK when trying to couple with air or fluids.
I've built a few cupholders for fun with them and the thermal transfer was not very good, unless you use a heatsink like ceramic or copper. And when used in a refrigerator type application, they just take do darn long to affect temperature.
I doubt you could recover enough HP from the intercooler to make up the additional HP drag from the altenator, not to mention the various spikes and surges to the electrical system.
Even if you could find a way to transfer enough heat from the intercooler, you'd still have to find a way to dump the thermal load generated, and that would change the airflow in the compartment, probably to a VERY negative degree.
If you really want to add power, see the JWT upgrades (they REALLY work) and add nitrous. You'd gain a known power increase, without having to invest in the serious engineering or testing it would take to even see if the peltier config would make a difference.
If your serious about the project, I'd recommend Corky Bell's Book, Supercharged! ISBN 0-8376-0168-1 It's a very easy read for the basics of airflow, charging and intercooling, with a focus on proper design, testing and installation.
They work well for thermal transfer in metal to metal applications like CPU's to heat sinks, etc. But they SUCK when trying to couple with air or fluids.
I've built a few cupholders for fun with them and the thermal transfer was not very good, unless you use a heatsink like ceramic or copper. And when used in a refrigerator type application, they just take do darn long to affect temperature.
I doubt you could recover enough HP from the intercooler to make up the additional HP drag from the altenator, not to mention the various spikes and surges to the electrical system.
Even if you could find a way to transfer enough heat from the intercooler, you'd still have to find a way to dump the thermal load generated, and that would change the airflow in the compartment, probably to a VERY negative degree.
If you really want to add power, see the JWT upgrades (they REALLY work) and add nitrous. You'd gain a known power increase, without having to invest in the serious engineering or testing it would take to even see if the peltier config would make a difference.
If your serious about the project, I'd recommend Corky Bell's Book, Supercharged! ISBN 0-8376-0168-1 It's a very easy read for the basics of airflow, charging and intercooling, with a focus on proper design, testing and installation.