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by sigkill 4731 days ago
>Seebeck is incredibly inefficient

Yep, I was going to try to use that (peltier) in conjunction with a small array of solar panels to cool my car because summer afternoons can get incredibly hot - outside temperature reaches 45C, so I'm reasonably sure the car's interior would reach 55-60 easy. Alas! running some back of the envelope calculations (before jumping into the whole thing) I quickly discovered that I'm better off trying to find an efficient and tiny compressor, and large secondary battery to charge off the solar panels.

This problem still remains unsolved and no, remote start is not an option. I'm trying to craft something that is completely independent of the gas in the tank and preferably self sufficient.
2 comments
robomartin 4731 days ago
> Yep, I was going to try to use that (peltier) in conjunction with a small array of solar panels to cool my car because summer afternoons can get incredibly hot

A simple reflective car cover would do far more than all of that tech.

Smetimes it is really easy to over-engineer solutions to problems. I am reminded (and I am guilty) of this frequently.

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ISL 4731 days ago
This $15 thing will help with those first 15 C. Fancier ones exist.

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/sopoaucofan.html

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sigkill 4731 days ago
I got that as a gift, and I have to unfortunately state that it's a negative. It does not help. Actually it helps even worse than cracking the windows down a little.

I do realize that the problem needs to be approached two fold - expelling hot air outside to reach ambient + cooling air that's being taken in some manner.

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Retric 4730 days ago
In full sun a car can easily have 1+kw of heat gain. Combating that with AC takes a lot of energy especially when you consider how long a car may be sitting out in the sun. But, cutting down on heat gain either by parking in the shade or having reflective shades can get you to close to air temperature fairly easily. However, combining would make things a lot easer.

So, if your willing to go all out and spend a few thousand on modding your car. Automatic shades for every window, a fair sized solar array on the roof and an independent AC system designed for continuous operation.

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