I’d thought I’d give a little tutorial on cooling technology from low to high end and where Anker fits in each level.
Physics
Matter exists in 4 states
- solid, electrons share tight molecular bonds. e.g. Water (H2O) is called Ice where hydrogen atoms share electrons.
- liquid, loser molecular bonds, e.g. Water is called “water”
- gas, no molecular bonds, e.g water is called “vapour”.
- plasma, the electrons around the nucleus have too much energy to make an atom, so we have loose nucleus and electrons.
Ice vs Water bonds representation:
To move between these states involves an energy transfer
- to move to a looser molecular bond absorbs energy. e.g. from solid to liquid - “thawing” absorbs energy
- to move to a tighter molecular bond releases energy e.g. from vapour to liquid releases energy.
Within each state there is additional energy in the vibration of the molecules.
- We call this “temperature”.
- The relationship between temperature and energy (how much energy it takes to change temperature) is called the Specific Heat Density Capacity
- For example, the specific heat of water is 1 calorie (or 4.186 joules) per gram per Celsius degree.
To change a state (which doesn’t alter Temperature) is called Specific latent heat, and is the amount of energy required to change the state of 1 kilogram (kg) of a material without changing its temperature.
There 3 main technologies to change the temperature of a substance.
Evaporative cooling
In the context of use humans in air (mostly Nitrogen) the air has a capacity to fit some water molecules, and how much is currently held is the humidity.
So if you simply let liquid water be next to air, it will begin evaporating, so changing the water from liquid state to vapour state, that takes energy. As humans we experience this as sweating and in a breeze we feel cooler. Once air is saturated the temperature is called the dew point where water begins to go back to a liquid state we call condensation - Clouds in the sky are condensing as the cooler air at altitude can hold less water vapour.
You can encourage the liquid to evaporate by:
- increasing the surface area of the water. So if you squirt water through a small hole to turn into a mist, then the surface area of the water is increased, evaporation increases.
- as the liquid water evaporates it increases the local air’s humidity and so the evaporation process slows. So if you force air to move then fresh lower humidity air passes through the water and so maintains higher evaporation.
Evaporative cooling is thus only powering a small pump and small fan, so is a low Wattage drain, easily fitting entry-level USB. Here is my Anker Powercore 20000 running a misting fan, this setup can run for 8 hours.
So if you have a limited budget you can still benefit from Anker chargers and portable chargers to get some cooling benefit.
Compressors
The most common way to alter temperature is to squish a substance and then release the pressure in a closed loop.
- if you compress a substance (e.g. in a refrigerator it’s usually tetrafluoroethane) which switches between liquid and vapour state at a lower temperature than water, it’s temperature will increase as you’ve increased it’s density, you then pass that denser material through an external heat exchanger, energy is lost (radiation, convection)
- the liquid is then allowed to expand, often vaporising, and so absorbs energy, this is passed through heat exchanger inside the fridge.
As a compressor is running the Wattage needs are much higher than the evaporative cooling method, so a Powercore can’t cut it.
For Anker for this context you have two approaches. If you want to power an AC compressor based fridge/freezer you’d pair with a Anker Powerhouse, and now sold under the Anker Solix sub-brand.
You’d research your fridge’s surge power needs and average power needs and get the appropriate Powerhouse to your needs. e.g. my freezer at home is
So I know to run this for 24 hours I’d need roughly a minimum of 512Wh and given its compressor based that 0.7A won’t be the peak it will be likely higher so I need a surge in region of 500W-1000W to cover when compressor starts up. Example Anker product:
Anker’s own new Everfrost is based on a small compressor in an all-in-1 product.
Thermoelectric Effect
As explained, molecular bonds store energy in the energy levels of their electrons. There is a quantum mechanics effect where when you apply a voltage to the movement of electrons causes a movement of heat. The Peltier effect is the subset of Thermoelectric effect when you supply a voltage to move heat.
You could possibly use a smaller Anker Powerhouse as you don’t have to service the surge Watts of a compressor-based fridge, or some Peltier effect products could run off a Powercore.
Do you think Anker should make a Peltier effect cooling product?