Crx a/c peltier???

[Mpgian]

I have a CRX with a d series motor swap. My car dident come with any a/c stuff. Summer is comming and I am born and raised in the Pacific North West (this means I melt under any form of heat over 70*f). I would really like to have some sort of air cooler, I dont need it to be frosty in my car on a hot day, in fact driving with the windows down is fine 340 days a year! there is only a few hot ones and I cant take any more of it. I already installed 20% tint (this helps alot!!!). Here are my options so far:


1) I have read about the Ice box with a fan on top... -
Not really interested in the mess and ordeal of having to constantly add ice, drain water... and it would not fit very easy in my car...

2)stock A/C
-This would be ideal if I had all the parts, Ive got a compressor and evaporator (part that goes under dash) from craigslist for $5
Im not sure where to find all the hoses, wiring, a/c button, condenser, condencer fan, dryer, and other parts, let alone hook everything up, and get it evap'd and charged. This all sounds expencive!!! to the tune of at least $2-400!!! so its out of my price range...

3)Peltier cooling plate system
Im thinking of using 4 136.8w 12v plates hooked up in 2 sets of series. that would only draw 22.8A (136.8w x 2 banks (4 plates total)) with heat sinks. I would put this in the stock evaporator box. and pipe the heated side out with a 12v mini fan and aluminum ducting. I would only use this when sitting in traffic on a hot summer day, I belive this would make the air a little cooler but I dont plan on it cooling the car temp any, just the air being blown out the vents. I could also use this as a heater (switch polarity) to warm up without using my heater coil and allow my motor to warm up to temp faster, then switch heaters over after the motor is up to temp. (side note: I have a 90a b-series alternator installed in my d15z1 NOT the 60a D series alt.)


Here are my questions about Peltier cooling plates.

1- What will be more efficent if both were only used 20 days a year: stock a/c system, or a 22A peltier setup?

2- how much cooling could I expect from 4 plates on 6-7v dc?

3- should I just forget about the plates and go for the stock setup? ( I would have to wait until next year to have it installed)

[bestclimb]

Bead seat cover?

[Joenavy85]

peltier elements aren't a viable option IMHO, they are an added load on the electrical system, and to make them useful in any way for cooling you need to have a heat sink on the opposite side to dissipate the heat to somewhere outside the car or the element will do you no good at all, i've messed around with them before and honestly i would spend the extra time and money for an A/C unit plus install than try to make peltier elements work for cooling a vehicle. they work good for spot cooling (ie. a cupholder cooling set up) but not for large volume cooling

[mort]

Hi Mpgian,
You won't be satisfied with a Peltier cooler. The Coefficient of Performance (CoP) for the best peltier junctions is 1.3. Even poorly designed automotive A/C systems will have CoP around 6. (Good room size A/C plugged into wall current maybe up to 10)

So if a car A/C uses something like 5 hp to cool the car, a Peltier setup will need about 17 KW (1200 amps at 14 volts) to do the same job. Or 22 amps of Peltier is 1/50 the amount of cooling in a conventional auto A/C. If the stock setup cooled 100 degree air to 70 then the Peltier could cool 100 degree air to 99.4.

However... A few cars, Lincoln for instance, use Peltier coolers in the seats to have, well cool seats. They are electrically reversable so you can have heated seats too. Probably about 100 watts of cooling per seat. Also you could add a Peltier beverage cooler and sip icy maragitas...

-mort