Herman Miller C2 : Peltier Coolers on Your Desk
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06.12.07
Herman Miller, home of Charles Eames, George Nelson and the Aeron Chair, and now one of the greenest of companies, does not normally make appliances. Therefore we scratched our head when we saw the new C2 this week. We love the idea- ambient temperature is one of the biggest complaints people have about their workspaces. Herman Miller has given us comfortable chairs and good lighting- can they solve this as well?
The C2 acts as an air filter, uses only 1.5 amps of power, yet can, (according to Engadget,) allow users to adjust the surrounding temperature up to a 40 degree increase, and an 8 degree decrease, taking 72 degrees F (22 degrees C) as the starting temperature." which are big numbers even in Farenheit.
It appears to be "the first commercially available non-automotive product to use Amerigon's patented advanced thermoelectric (TE) technology developed by its BSST subsidiary." - a heating and cooling system previously used in high end car seats.
From an Amerigon press release:
Robyn Hofmeyer, General Manager of The Be Collection, said, "A common problem in today's work environment is finding a temperature that works for everyone. C2 can solve that issue, for each individual, in an energy- efficient and safe way."
Lon E. Bell, PhD., President and Chief Executive Officer of the BSST subsidiary of Amerigon, commented, "C2 is a great example of what can be developed with our proprietary thermoelectric technology. Much like Amerigon's CCS system, Herman Miller's C2 delivers heating and cooling in a compact package and is designed to be very friendly to the environment. As BSST continues to make thermoelectrics more efficient, the range of new, innovative product opportunities like C2 opens up dramatically."
A Google patent search on Amerigon turned up 5524439, a car seat system described thus:
"Each heat pump comprises a number of Peltier thermoelectric modules for temperature conditioning the air in a main heat exchanger and a main exchanger fan for passing the conditioned air from the main exchanger to the variable temperature seat. The Peltier modules and each main fan may be manually adjusted via a temperature switch and a fan switch, respectively. Additionally, the temperature climate control system may comprise a number of additional temperature sensors to monitor the temperature of the ambient air surrounding the occupant as well as the temperature of the conditioned air directed to the occupant. The controller is configured to automatically regulate the operation of the Peltier modules and/or each main fan according to a temperature climate control algorithm designed both to maximize occupant comfort..."
Herman Miller appears to have packaged this Peltier system in a neat plastic housing for our comfort, convenience and individual control. What a great idea. ::Herman Miller, ::Amerigon
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What the hell? How is this good news? Desks that are next to each other trying to force the temperature in different directions, and each of them using 200 watts to do it is NOT a good thing.
LA: Good Point.
Obviously some intelligence is required in their use, but this is a good thing if the entire office doesn't need to be heated to 76 degrees just because of one old woman (yes I've seen it happen).
The office can be set to an efficient temperature, and the sensitive few can have these in their cubes. If the office is set to 68 in the winter, lots of people will be OK with that, or may wear a sweater. You won't have anyone running theirs on the cool setting, but a few might want to run them as heaters. The same applies if you set the office at 76 in the summer, nobody will be running them in heat mode.
Major savings are possible with these.
there is some simple energy balance that says in cooling one side of this thing will give you nice cool air while the other end spits out all the heat that you just removed from the air plus almost 200 watts of heat. Now why can't we just wear shorts to work again??
just a totally pedantic and geeky note: an amp is not a unit of power. i assume you mean 1.5 A @ ~110 VAC?
Thermoelectric devices use DC current only. And it definitely will not be at 110 or 220 volts. Peltier devices usually run at around 8-16 volts.
Talking about peltiers/thermoelectric modules usually running at around 8-16Volts and assuming it running at only 1.5amps power. I cannot imagine how efficient can it be.... For heating I suppose it may work well, but I having doubts with its cooling....
I won one of these devices and it puts out just as much cool air as it does hot air in exhaust when the cooling function is activated and just as much hot air as it does cool air in recirculation when the heat is on, I dont understand it.