Not yet, but I will, I promise. Been super busy with work and after work stuff. I want to say it was a bee keeper's site. They used them for the queens, somehow.
Cool, I will be sure to let you know when I build one as well to tell you how it works out.
It *should* work with no issue in my design, *however* the only issue is the amount it can drop the temp. so a 100w peltier, should be able to drop 90 maybe 95 to 72-74. And the goal of course is to never let it get that hot lol.
However for anyone that wants to do this I few a few things I have noticed and thought about.
1. Using a peltier for heat is sub par, You will be chilling the room, and its effectiveness will go down the hotter it gets. It will also require a dc Stat, of which they are lacking. If you want to use 1 good stat you have 1 option and that is a spyder robotics Herpstat 2, VE stats can be in on off mode (for the heat peltier) but do not support cooling. The spyder will support cooling but wants to dim the heat only, therefor I would do Heat tape heat and Peltier cool.
2. The Wine chiller isn't the best medium for this IMO, I think a standard mini fridge would work better as it is insulated better, you do lose the window however. A compressor mini fridge also has the large dent in the back where a peltier or 2 can be installed. So buying a High Quality Peltier and a HQ DC power supply for them is best IMO. (I actually have a old fridge that I gutted to try this with after I clear up some other projects that will be my pro-type of the real one
, though it will be done cheaply just for testing)
3. The best fridge I have found to my liking is the True brand fridges that are used in stores )lots of people use them for this, they can be found broken affordable enoug). They have a shelving system, that allows heat tape on the sides of the fridge. This ensures ample room for heat tape and peltiers. These fridges also have Signs on the top or the ability to make one
. This is good as it gives places to cut out for the stat, and led thermostats. The benefit I find to this situation is, the peltiers can then be installed on the top of the unit, This will allow the heat to rise away from the fridge, as well as the cooling fans to blow down.
They could then be left on 24/7 to help with Convection if desired. Cold Air falls so this is ideal and helps with the need for ventilation for the peltier on top. It does however place the peltier in a hotter place in the room. Experimentation would need to be done with that.
4. Another good idea, would be to watercool the peltiers, I do this with PCs already, however running a lot can cause failures semi quickly without a good pump and even then its up in the air. Not sure how trusting of a plan this is albeit doable. This will however increase the peltiers efficiency and life, as well as allow it to cool better. It will add a few hundred to the project for most (I could do it cheap as I have tons of water cooling parts around
)
But where do you keep your wine????
