Thermoelectric Chiller / Heaters

[bhammer]

All, the other night I was browsing around and came across a site that had thermoelectric heater chiller combos and made them up to several hundred gallon size. I cannot find the website again.

The ones for a 100G tank was about the size of a brick and had three fans on the top.

Do any of you know what I am talking about. It looked neat and better than a traditional cooler and I wanted to research them more.

I am not talking about the Azoo or the ice probes.

[Etunes]

I am actually curious if it is at all necessary to have these. Are they important?

[mgamer20o0]

sorry i cant help you bhammer.

are they necessary? maybe. it really depends. they are more important in sw tanks but if you live in a hot place or have fish/shimp that need cooler temps then the house is it can very well be necessary.

[AMDPhenomX4]

How much did they cost? I found some but their over a grand. It more or less depends on if your aquarium gets too hot, especially in the summer.

[Zer0]

To be honest, my suggestions is skip the hundreds of dollars on a chiller and just get an "in-window" A/C unit. I have one because my room gets pretty hot during the summer and all i have to do to get my tank to cool down is put the fan on medium blast. 5-10 minutes later, the tank is down to 78-80 degrees. And it cant get any colder than that because of the 250w heater i have in there. The A/C unit cost me 65$.. alot cheaper then a chiller and WAY more effective imo. But then again, i've never seen a chiller in action so yeah.

[fishmonkey]

why is it called thermoelectric? whats special about it?

[partypalooza5]

It uses electricity instead of vapor compression to produce cold. Thermoelectric works off i believe the Seebeck effect, heat transfer through dissimilar metals. So it can work as a heat pump, both a heater and a chiller. It's terribly inefficent though.

[fishmonkey]

oh so its worse than the kind you would find at the lfs?

[partypalooza5]

Originally Posted by fishmonkey

oh so its worse than the kind you would find at the lfs?

Well I wouldn't say WORSE. I'd say over priced and not worth it. They may be great for 10G tanks but anything over that means it will be running all of the time (atleast in the Texas heat!)

Refrigeration units are just more noisy really.

[thincat]

Chiller VS window AC. the difference is that a chiller will keep your tank at a stable set temp. Where as a window AC would have to be running all the time to keep your tank at a stable temp.

[bhammer]

The PE device isn't extremely efficient, I'll give you that. The ones that I saw were actually designed for larger tanks. If I remember, the ones for up to 125 gallon was about $300. I'll keep looking to try to find them again and post back.

[bhammer]

Okay, I found what I was talking about. they are at CASCO Group the price is much more than what I thought but I was just browsing around and had lots of prices in my head.

Aside from the cost, I'd rather have one of these running than a standard cooler cyclin all the time and trying to figure out what to do with the exhaust.

[Kurt_Nelson]

Wow... that's an interesting link. I'd never seen ones that big.

I'm kinda confused though about your comment about not having to deal with the exhaust. Regardless of HOW you cool the water - whether by a standard heat exchanger or by a thermoelectric one - you're going to have to deal with the exhaust of hot air. You can't lower the water temperature and not generate heat.

While I'm not really familiar with these units, I do know that thermoelectric coolers are terribly inefficient compared to standard condenser-based unit. You'd probably be running this unit for a much longer time cycle than a condenser-based unit to get the same heat rejection. More money for the unit, more money for the energy, and you still have to deal with the heat generated by the unit.

[partypalooza5]

Dang, Those are some big thermoelectric setups! The one I made was only like 80W. Then again, I didn't know (at that time) you MUST put the hot side on a heatsink, soo I burned out like three of them.

[bhammer]

Originally Posted by Kurt_Nelson

I'm kinda confused though about your comment about not having to deal with the exhaust. Regardless of HOW you cool the water - whether by a standard heat exchanger or by a thermoelectric one - you're going to have to deal with the exhaust of hot air. You can't lower the water temperature and not generate heat.

Yes, the heat has to go somewhere, but I'd imagine the volume of air is much more with the traditional units. I have sent the manufacturer an email asking for specific specs on the unit and how much heat is given off. Plus, it'll run about as loud as a computer. I could keep this under my cabinet and not worry about exhausting the heat, I would think or any condensation worries.

While I'm not really familiar with these units, I do know that thermoelectric coolers are terribly inefficient compared to standard condenser-based unit. You'd probably be running this unit for a much longer time cycle than a condenser-based unit to get the same heat rejection.

I know that they are inefficient but I'll have to do the math once I receive the specs to see if one over the other is cheaper to operate and what long term costs are. The only moving part is the fan(s) and there is zero freon involved.

Now, the condensor based units are well proven technologies and that is something to consider. All in all, the cost will keep me from doing it for the time being. I'll have to get facts from the manufacturer and see how it plays out.

[AMDPhenomX4]

Err, You do realize i posted the link on the first page right?

[Kurt_Nelson]

Originally Posted by bhammer

Yes, the heat has to go somewhere, but I'd imagine the volume of air is much more with the traditional units. I have sent the manufacturer an email asking for specific specs on the unit and how much heat is given off. Plus, it'll run about as loud as a computer. I could keep this under my cabinet and not worry about exhausting the heat, I would think or any condensation worries.

Not sure about the volume of air, but the amount of heat is going to be the same. If you look at their FAQs, you'll see they definitely touch on having adequate airflow around the units. You can't just tuck them away without means for ventilation.

I don't use a chiller... just a fan across the top of the tank and a portable a/c unit when it gets really hot... so I don't really have a strong opinion one way or another about them. I just didn't want you to think that these thermoelectric ones don't have the same heat rejection issues that normal ones do.