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Author Topic: Active cooling (peltier cooler)  (Read 7606 times)

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ABarton

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Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« on: June 30, 2011, 02:26:00 PM »

Hello all, I'm soon going to adopt a little girl kit so I'm trying to get everything ready for her.
My biggest concern is keeping her cool. I live in California (near the coast) and it's the middle of summer in a house without AC. I've heard of people keeping their chins cool by using a marble slab that they chill and put in the cage, but this doesn't seem like a good solution to me. I would prefer an active solution, but I haven't been able to find any off the shelf solutions.

I'm thinking of solving this by building an actively chilled box, or at least a box with an actively chilled floor.

Now a traditional refrigerator is out of the question, the bulk and noise would be too much. But there are other ways to cool, like a peltier cooler.
A peltier cooler is basically a plate that you run electricity through and it cools one side and heats the other.

A friend of mine has a spare cooler (once used to cool a computer) that can easily move 70 watts of heat from one side to the other, and keep the cold side 60 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the surrounding area. (for reference I calculated that a chinchilla produces less than 20 watts, and probably less than 15)

Has anyone here ever heard of someone using a peltier cooler for a chinchilla? Is it even worth the effort?
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jmdebb

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2011, 08:23:36 PM »

i have an, or did have until it died, and air conditioner in their room..

just dont let it blow direclty on them.
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ABarton

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2011, 09:34:04 PM »

The way the house is arranged an air conditioner really wouldn't work, there is no way to discharge the hot air well. Swamp coolers don't have a hot discharge but raise the humidity and I've heard that chinchillas prefer dryer conditions.

A compressor air conditioner uses a lot more electricity than this little thing would. An air conditioner can use upwards of 2kW while this thing will draw just ~100 watts.

I can build this cooler for about 120-160$
25$ for the cooler element
45$ for the power supply
30$ for the thermostat
+ costs for the housing to put it in.

I think what we're going to do for now is try the refrigerated slabs, and if that doesn't work out then I'll try building this cooler.
Although I have a design problem I have to work through first...
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jbcstratton

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2011, 04:17:24 AM »

Just be aware that if this does not cool them and they get overheated they can die of heatstroke.
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Brandy

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2011, 09:09:50 AM »

Yes, your biggest problem will be cooling the total air in the cage.  Since chinchillas cool through the outside air around their ears a cold floor will not  help if the wire cage is in a room over 75 degrees.  Perhaps, in this situation, you would go for a solid cage that would hold the cold air in and  in effect cool all of the air the chinchilla lives in.  I would suggest a high/low thermometer at mid cage level for a week or two BEFORE you get the chinchilla.  If the temp goes above 75 you'll know the chinchilla will most likely still die in that cage.
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dianah

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #5 on: July 01, 2011, 09:19:03 AM »

is there a window in that room? i have a portable air con unit and the heat output is through the window although you can make a hole in the wall (my walls are nearly 2ft thick though1) and do it that way.

as for the cooling stone, all my cages have one in, regardless of temperature. not that they use them much but they do like sitting on them.

you have mentioned humidity as well, it's not just that they prefer it dryer, high humidity is an additional factor in heatstroke. higher temperature combined with high humidity is lethal but not so high temperature (a little above the range) with high humidity can cause serious problems/death too.
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jmdebb

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2011, 04:48:37 PM »

sorry, i do not know what a swamp cooler is, but think jamie had a great idea..

heat and humidity is very bad for a chinchilla.  sorry.
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ABarton

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #7 on: July 02, 2011, 07:51:08 PM »

A swamp cooler is also called an evaporate cooler, you fill it up with water and then this water evaporates. As the water evaporates it turns from a liquid to a gas, this takes energy. The energy need for this transition comes from the air, causing cold (and wet) air to come out.

Most AC units and all refrigerators are compression coolers. They take a gas (something like freon) and compress it, causing it to get hot. The gas is then cooled by outside air to room temp, then let to expand. As it expands the gas cools and then is used to cool the room air. Messing with the internals of a compression cooler is a bad idea, you don't want a freon leak.


I just want to emphasize that I know about chinchilla heatstroke and this idea is more of an idea/experiment, I do not intend to use some unproven device to cool my chinchilla. I have a thermometer near the cage with the probe in the cage, and it will alert me if the temperature rises above 70 degrees.
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chinclub

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #8 on: July 03, 2011, 08:30:13 AM »

So is your plan to use a wire cage or a solid cage to try to hold in the cool air.
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dianah

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2011, 12:30:44 PM »

evaporate cooler is not a good idea. this will increase the humidity significantly. high humidity is a problem even if the temperature is not too high. i wouldn't.
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jmdebb

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #10 on: July 03, 2011, 03:26:56 PM »

i'm not a pro, but i agree with dineah,, i do know humidty is bad, and with humidity you have water.. so i personally wouldn't put morer water into the air. sorry for all the bad news, i hope you can work somethign out.
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bgavin

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Re: Active cooling (peltier cooler)
« Reply #11 on: September 25, 2011, 02:24:28 PM »

Hi All, first post.

The rule of thumb for Chin Death is Temperature + Humidity = 150.

I live in the metro Sacramento, CA area where it gets HOT during the summer.
We are not as scalding as Phoenix, Tucson, nor as Hot+Humid as the deep south.

We are subject to chronic power outages and/or loss of air conditioning in my area.
During the summer months, my two boys have a full size ferret cage that stays in my wife's sewing room during the day.
This 10' x 10' room is closest to the attic mounted heating/cooling unit, so it gets the highest air flow.

I have the attic ceiling insulated with thick R-60 bats to shield the room from attic heat radiation.
The outside wall gets sun until 10am, so I have a modest drop-down blind installed outside during the summer.
The walls are poorly insulated and the glass is single pane.

We run the house temp at 75~76 degrees, which keeps the chin room about 71 degrees.
I keep a shoe in the door so it stays cracked an inch or two.  This lets the heat out.
As long as the A/C works, this is quite effective.

The boys' cage is covered at the top with a double layer fleece blanket my wife made for them.
This keeps The Penthouse sleeping area extra dark and cozy during the day.
It also shields their sleeping area from drafts.

When the A/C fails, I wrap the fleece blanket all the way around the bottom of the cage.
The top section is exposed, the bottom section is completely wrapped with insulative fleece.
I keep frozen bottles in the garage freezer for emergencies like these.
I put three 1 liter frozen water bottles (old soda bottles) on the cage bottom floor.
These sweat, and when combined with chin poop does make an icky mess. 
A towel is advised under the bottles.

Using my Kodak photo thermometer, I determined the cage bottom stayed at 73 degrees when the room got as hot as 87 degrees.
This simple wrap is highly effective until a remedy is found.

Our A/C took nearly a week to get replaced, so I bought a $99 Wal-Mart General Electric window mount A/C unit.
This is a 5K btu unit that runs on 110v wall power.
I had to build a platform for the unit because we have the old style horizontal slider windows.
This modest window A/C kept the room at 74 degrees with the rest of the house well over 87.

As noted above, chins are ear-coolers.
Swamp coolers do not work, nor does blowing a fan on them.
Both will make them ill, or worse.
A modest window A/C will do a good job if you keep the sun off the walls.
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