cooling box

Stacked cool boxes

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A cool box is a portable container for cooling various foods and drinks as well as other things that need to be cooled. Cool boxes are used in leisure time, for sport, when traveling or to transport medical samples and organs that can be transplanted.

Due to the relatively low temperature inside, a rise in temperature due to penetrating heat is inevitable despite the insulation . This is compensated either passively by inserting pre-cooled ice packs with a high heat storage coefficient (e.g. a special gel or saturated salt water) or actively by a cooling unit . Four different technologies are used:

• compressor
• absorber
• Peltier
• Hybrid (compressor / Peltier)

The latter are particularly inexpensive and therefore the most common. They have a small heat sink to absorb heat inside and a slightly larger heat sink to dissipate heat outside the cool box. This is usually built into the cover and glued onto the actual Peltier element. The advantages of using Peltier elements are a very thin and lightweight design that can be adjusted in size, longevity due to the lack of mechanical parts (except for any fans), gases and liquids, noiseless operation (except for any fans), insensitivity to changes in position angle and the comparatively inexpensive production based on performance. The disadvantage of using Peltier elements is that the maximum achievable cooling capacity is directly dependent on the outside temperature (formation of a temperature difference), which means that the inside temperature also fluctuates greatly, as well as very high power consumption compared to other cooling technologies. In addition, because of the goal of being inexpensive, control and regulation parts such as a temperature sensor are often saved, and the cool box runs at full capacity as long as it is connected to the electricity. The condensation on the inner heat sink can also lead to ice accumulation, which reduces the cooling performance.

In addition to being operated with electricity (12 or 230 V), absorber coolers can often also be operated with propane gas (e.g. from cartridges ) or solar energy.

Web links

Commons : Cool Boxes  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hybrid cool boxes: Everything you need to know! Retrieved July 5, 2019 .