I am working on a project and need it to cool down to 0 degrees C. I was thinking the best way to do this would be to use a small radiator. Someone told me before that there is a radiator that is about 8" by 8"". The box that i am using is 2 feet by 2 feet and i want the cooling device to be as small as possible but at the same time not expensive.

Do any of you guys have a better idea or know where i can find a cheap radiator to cool my project? thank you in advance for all your help that you are able to give me.

 

A radiator won't cool to the temperature which is lower than ambient. What you need is a Peltier cooler. There is plenty of them on eBay.

 

thank you soo much for you help! I will look for one and see what i come up with.

 

How much heat is the device generating, and how hot is the outside air?

Selecting/using Peltiers requires taking quite a number of factors into account. They also require quite a bit of electricity.

You need to say just what this project is supposed to do and how you're planning to do it. "a project which needs to be cooled down" sure doesn't say much.

__________________
I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.

 

You also need a method to remove heat from the hot side of the peltier cooler like a fan.

 

What is the volume of air you have to chill? Or is this for direct application to a specific device like a CPU or GPU (i.e., are you overclocking?)

Google phase-change cooling. Even if you're not overclocking, you can get some pretty good chilling from these things.


Torben

 

If you need a peltier cooler, look out for a cheap or second hand mains/battery "mini-fridge" cooler (the very small type that holds just a few drink cans)
Something like this:
http://www.argos.co.uk/wcsstore/argo...2UC114862M.jpg

These contain the peltier cooler plus a large aluminium heat sinks,fans,thermostat and a switch mode power supply to provide the 70-80 watts needed.

You will just need to disassemble it all and adapt it to your needs.

 

What i am trying to do is to heat and cool circuit boards. I am going to use either 100W light bulbs or something to heat the box up to around 70 degrees C (with the boards inside) and then i also need to be able to drop the temperature in the box to down to around 0 degrees C. i am not mounting this to anything. I just wanted something to cool down the box and i wanted to small enough that i wouldn't have to take apart the entire box to get the boards out or to have to change components inside the box.

I will try to figure out more of the specifications i am looking for tonight and tomorrow and post them tomorrow.

 

You can heat up the box with the same Peltier - just reverse polarity on it.

 

You still need to give more information... why are you "heating and cooling" circuit boards??? If it's to do some sort of testing you need certain heating/cooling specs. If the board's running then you've got issues as to heat pumping capacity. Or whatever. You need to say more about what you need to do, this doesn't even make sense yet.

__________________
I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.