Thermocline Chillers

[FRIDMANI]

Has anyone used these small Thermocline Chillers? I was wondering how effective they are on 20 gallon tanks or larger...also how well do they work when they are piggy-backed?

 

[esmithiii]

where did you see them?

E

 

[Deo]

I'm also interested. Where did you see them? Do they have a website?

 

[Deo]

I found the site at http://www.thermoclinechiller.com
Anybody with experience using this?

 

[Deo]

Anybody?

 

[esmithiii]

I e-mailed them a request for more information.

Ernie

 

[FRIDMANI]

They are all over FAMA. They are only good for supposedly for small tanks. I guess no one has used it.

 

[ADS]

Champion had Iceprobe on sale for $109 recently. Is this the same one? Their info said they work up to 55g and you can use multiple on bigger tanks.

 

[ebaybrad]

i have used em on my 12g nano...work well...wouldnt do much for a 55 gallon though...maybe a degree or so...i dont care what anyone says....its like putting 5 ice cubes in the tank....

 

[FRIDMANI]

I didn't think just one would work on a tank as big as 55gallon. I was thinking about putting them in series. They interest me because they seem to be pretty quiet and efficient? I guess I'll have try it out for myself.

 

[914]

well, that's relative (quiet and efficient)

these things are Peltier coolers, which are/have been known in geek circles for a while.

they are solid-state cooling devices used on heat-sinks for high powered and overclocked CPUs (and video chips, nowadays)

also, if you've ever seen the 'electric cooler' from Coleman (or others) or the 'auto cooler' that plugs into a cigarette lighter, these are Peltier effect coolers.

essentially, it's a plate that when electricity is applied to, makes one side of the plate hot and the other cold. if you reverse the polarity, the hot/cold sided reverse as well.

laws of thermodynamics and all that mean that they will always produce more heat than they abate (meaning that if you immersed the thing overall into the water, the water would heat.. for example, it would output +10degF and -6degF for a total +4degF, in a given volume... this is consistent with all electro-mechanical cooling systems.)

here's some Peltier info:
http://www.overclockers.com/tips45/

peltier's have about 5 - 8% efficiency, meaning that for every 100watt/hours of heat they remove (or cooling they provide) (you can convert to calories or BTU yourself, if you like) they consume 500 - 800 watt/hours of electricity.

so, therefore, the TOTAL heat generated would be 600-800watt/hours, ie the electricity consumed, plus the heat removed.

that's why these things make much better heaters than coolers...

for comparison, a typical compressor-type cooler has about 45% efficiency..

Peltiers can achieve very high temperature differentials if they are lightly loaded, but under load they don't perform as well, as the hotter they get the less efficient they become.

as for the noise issue, Peltiers themselves are totally silent, having no moving parts at all (not even vibration)

all of the noise will come from the heatsink fan, which of course needs to be a good one to keep the peltier (hot side) cool to keep the efficiency up.

the bottom line is that this is an interesting idea for small tanks, but everything will hinge on how well the heatsink/fan combo reject heat.

hum. one could experiment with this (it's difficult to damage a Peltier) with a tank, a heater and one of these coolers...

another idea would be to liquid-cool the 'hot' side of the Peltier. a small closed-loop system using a small radiator (like auto transmission/oil cooler) would probably be very good at rejecting heat, and also super-quiet.

anyhow, that's what i know about these coolers....

 

[914]

some more links...
(and don't check my math above! i'm a dummy!)


one could get one of these and bond it directly to the glass... though what/how you bonded it with would affect thermal transfer, and would be poor for acrylic aquariums. also have to think about temp differentials shattering glass, that's a question for an engineer..
http://www.tetech.com/assys/plate.html

i'm not sure 'hard coat anodized' would be SW safe...
http://www.tetech.com/assys/water.html

a good FAQ:
http://www.sirec-it.com/faq.htm

and this page lists their units both by watts and BTU/hour...
http://www.electracool.com/aaprices.htm
(very educational!)