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  • Author Author: robogary
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Solar Powered Tropical Beverage Cooling Mug -Blog #4 – Learning to cool with Peltier modules

robogary

The heart and soul of the Solar Powered Tropical Beverage Cooling Mug is the Peltier Module used for cooling my favorite tropical beverage.

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The thought is to place the cool side touching the liquid container to chill with conduction. 

I ordered a 6V 2A  peltier module to experiment with.

The 6V rating seemed perfect to coordinate with AA or AAA rechargable batteries with a 12V solar panel, to allow solar cell voltage variation with enough dynamic headroom to charge batteries on a cloudy day.

I ordered the module with little information on the corner points and operation of a peltier module. 

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 My test started with increasing applied + voltage, record current and stabilized temperature at the peltier surface center.    

Red lead is + , Black lead is -  the side with model number stamped is the cool side.

The data taken at ambient 22C

1V  382mA  hot side 34C  cold side 23C 

2V 637mA  hot side 52C cold side 30C 

3V  871mA  hot side 80C  cold side 42C

4V 1070mA hot side 114C  cold side 68C

5V 1210mA  hot side 145C cold side 94C 

The module was pretty hot so I didnt try to take it up to maximum Volts and amps input

Peltier modules are really good at hot. The hot side heats up the cool side. The module will keep a delta temperature 40-50C from hot to cold, but not an absolute temperature.

It is obvious a heatsink and fan is needed to cool the hot side , so the cool side can get cooler. How much , that to be done....

Finally tho I did find some very important spec details that match my experiment observations : https://qqtrading.com.my/thermoelectric-peltier-cooler-tes1-4902

  • Delta T max.: 65°C
  • Max. Temperature: 138°C  (lucky I didnt fail my module) 
  • Do not attempt to use TEC1 Peltier Modules without a fan or liquid cooled heat sink. Heatsink is a must for the hot side.

 

CONCLUSIONS:

Next step is to add a heatsink and fan to the peltier module in this design.

The fan and heatsink adds alot to the complexity because the hot side needs monitored , and provided with a shutdown capability so I dont burn my face when taking a sip of cool tropical beverage.  

 To save battery life , the cool side needs monitored and controlled with a PID & PWM for a nice cool tropic setpoint.