Posted on 07/06/2005 8:33:43 AM PDT by skyman
Really cool invention brings teens awards Physics students: They came up with an environmentally friendly, economical air conditioner By Jessica Ravitz The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune
BLUFFDALE - The code name, Space Beast, was one they came up with in the wee hours of the night.
Tyler Lyon, Daniel Winegar and Chad Thornley were overtired and giddy as they tackled a science fair project. Their idea: Eliminate the use of Freon in automobile air-conditioning systems by relying on the Peltier effect - of course.
"We aren't planning our lives around making air conditioners," Lyon explained. "We wanted to do something to help the environment and the economy."
But what began as a Riverton High School physics class assignment nearly two years ago has morphed into an award-winning, internationally recognized invention.
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.
As a young boy, Lyon's parents said he tore apart and reassembled household electronics - CD players, clocks, an old stereo that didn't work until he fixed it. And while Daniel's mom, LouAnn Winegar, was grateful her son was "not a take-apart-person," she said her boy's love for science, engineering and computers has been consistent.
"It's nice to see all of his years of interest and hard work being recognized," she said.
The two-year process of fine-tuning, however, was not without its glitches. When the teens were trying to convert a blow-dryer fan from AC to DC power, a miswiring gave Lyon a doozy of a shock - "a low-enough amp that it couldn't really stop my heart," he said. And there was that computer power strip that they managed to ignite, before throwing it outside in the snow, only to retrieve it two days later to recycle its parts.
Despite the setbacks, and bouts of procrastination, the teens didn't give up. When they weren't playing computer games, skiing, snowboarding or, in Lyon's case, rock-climbing, they buckled down, sometimes working through the night. Their focus nearly cost them graduation - they had to scramble to make up work in other classes - but they accomplished what others couldn't.
After they had already begun their work, Lyon and Winegar learned about a 1964 General Motors analysis that explored the idea before the car company concluded it wasn't possible.
Going in with open minds, however, the teens were not deterred and pulled off what GM rejected. "Nobody told them it couldn't be done," Robert Lyon, Tyler's dad, said.
The first time he felt a cold gust of air successfully come through the system, Winegar said he remembers saying: "We may actually have something here."
Looks like they do. A Salt Lake City attorney is working to secure a patent. The Environmental Protection Agency called to express interest Tuesday morning. And though repeated attempts to communicate with Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. have gone unanswered, high officials in Japan - an ocean away - are awaiting the arrival of Riverton's young inventors.
They throw off a boatload of heat, too - your cooling system will need a cooling system.
There is also a savings in weight and complexity that may off-set the excess alternator drive. No compressor, No evaporator, No Condenser, No plumbing, No Freon, No extra belts and Pulleys. All this combined, an Extra-High output alternator in the same space looks really good to a high volume manufacturer. I have a cooler that uses a Peltier device and it works well. I don't expect an car AC to freeze you out of the cab with them, but it can possibly be improved over time........
What are the odds that somone in the know might tell the rest of us (me) what a Peltier Chip actually is?
They're also left with the problem of efficiently disposing of the heat from the hotside junction of the Peltier cell.
Why do they think GM rejected this concept? Because the GM engineers are stupid?
Because they hadn't spent long enough in high-school physics class?
Here's the 4-word theory of economics, and it also applies to engineering:
"Ain't no free lunch."
I would bet that when you run the actual numbers, you'll find that using peltier chips actually reduces your gas mileage as the load on the alternator increases.
I'll take that bet for any amount you want to part with.
Alternator loading on vehicles is much less than AC compressor loading (and alternator loading on newer cars supplemental electric cooling)
That is pretty cool. Besides, this could be the first generation prototype. Give a few real scientists a chance to make this industrially efficient and more powerful, and we might have something here. Even if its not optimal now, doesn't mean what they created may not be useful in the future.
Duct it under/over/around the car, like the radiator does.
Well, that sounds nifty, but does it dehumudify like a typical AC unit? How many Peltier chips would it take to cool down an entire house?
It would have to since the cooler air can't retain as much moisture it would probably condense on the chips and be drained off.
I suspect you're right. I noticed there was no mentioned of what happens to the heat created by the peltiers. Getting cool air to blow out of a fan is nice...but if it comes at a price of raising the normal temperature, what have you saved?
Even better, you could put a system in for each seat fairly easily.
11. Are there situations where compressor-based systems make more sense?
Yes. Generally, whenever a small compressor-based system would clearly be 'overkill' in providing a cooling solution, TE systems become the most viable choice. You find a 'gray area' amidst the medium-sized cooling jobs; here decisions ultimately come down to critical cost/benefit or design engineering considerations which are unique to each application. Given the present state of technology—unless there are unique overriding concerns—the compressor-based approach has distinct advantages in larger cooling systems such as standard-sized refrigerators and air-conditioning systems for buildings & vehicles. However, ongoing research into materials may one day make thermoelectrics practical for many of these larger applications.
This is from one of the manufacturers of Peltier effect devices. Source: Tellurex Corp.. Now, what do you suppose these kids know that Tellurex Corp doesn't?
From what I've been reading on these things (google is a wonderful thing) water is excellent for removing the heat. An automobile looks to be the ideal platform for this system.
My guess is GM rejected it because of the engineering costs associated with a changeover. I suspect the Japanese are so interested in it because they are interested in technological improvements. When will Detroit ever learn!
Right...and it probably wouldn't be a real good idea to have condensation build up on the chips.
An A/C unit puts out a 100% cooling effect when it is running, so the system adds warm outside air in most autos to moderate the temperature or cycles the A/C full on or full off (as in the case of a house) to get a moderate cooling temperature. It seems inefficient to have the A/C running at 100% when it is not needed. The peltier chips would not have to be run in such an inefficient manner. You might only need to use half the number of installed chips when cooling at a moderate temperature. If you want more cooling, you bring more chips online.
I guess the fuel savings will also be more in the south than in Canada.
Ask the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper switch how much money the Big 3 had paid him.
It's amazing what people who aren't addicted to meetings can accomplish.
It's not inefficient to run something at the point of maximum efficiency, or not at all. In fact, that's the most efficient way to do it.
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