Never seen this so far on the US Chinchilla forums before, but this is a really popular method that people in China use to keep their chins from dying in the summer time when AC is not available.
It's a DIY project that involves building or modifying a chin house by adding a Peltier cooler to it. The Peltier runs off a 12V power supply, so in an emergency, you can hook it up to a car battery or something and still provide cooling for an hour or two until the electric comes back.
It's kind of a minor electrical engineering project to do it, as it will require attaching devices to a power supply and possibly cutting wires. If you don't know what a Peltier cooling pad is, it's sort of a square metal pad that takes in an electrical current and one side becomes cold while the other side becomes hot. It's used in a lot of device, for example mini fridges and those stupid USB powered beverage coolers.
In any case, here's how it's done:
1. Get an existing chin house or build one with wood, and extend it to accommodate a cooling device (about 2-3 inches). See attached pic... the right side where the peltier pad goes is totally isolated from chin access by the way the cage is mounted.
2. For the cooling device, you will need: A peltier cooling pad, a heat sink for the cold side, and a heat sink with a fan or a water cooling block for the hot side.
3. Apply thermal grease and a foam insulation layer between the hot and the cold side of the peltier, and attach both heat sinks. The cold side heat sink will be small and flat, and should fit flush with the chin hut. It will become ice cold, cooling down the entire wooden hut and the inside air. The hot side will sit outside the hut and will be cooled by a standard 12V cooling fan (just like in a computer). Make sure the hot side is adequately cooled, or the cold side won't work as effectively. You can see in the attached photo they drilled out a hole and added a grate to allow better airflow.
4. Attach the whole thing to an appropriate sized 12V power supply, and if you have access, a thermostat with on/off switch. It's not really necessary since during summer you can run the thing 24/7.
5. The cold side will get really cold, and the wooden hut will absorb enough of this cold to be comfortable for a Chin without freezing it's tail off. Inside the hut will be about 10-15 degrees Celsius lower than the ambient air temp.
6. The hut should attach to the cage in such a way that the chinchilla cannot access the wires or chew on them.
See pictures for a well-polished and somewhat commercial example of this cooling solution. With this little 'AC Hut', the chin will have a place to retreat during summer, without the added expense of running an AC unit all day and night.
This only seems to be a practical solution for a single chinchilla, but you could theoretically attach 2 peltier coolers to a larger sized hut and make it big enough for 2 chins.
It's a DIY project that involves building or modifying a chin house by adding a Peltier cooler to it. The Peltier runs off a 12V power supply, so in an emergency, you can hook it up to a car battery or something and still provide cooling for an hour or two until the electric comes back.
It's kind of a minor electrical engineering project to do it, as it will require attaching devices to a power supply and possibly cutting wires. If you don't know what a Peltier cooling pad is, it's sort of a square metal pad that takes in an electrical current and one side becomes cold while the other side becomes hot. It's used in a lot of device, for example mini fridges and those stupid USB powered beverage coolers.
In any case, here's how it's done:
1. Get an existing chin house or build one with wood, and extend it to accommodate a cooling device (about 2-3 inches). See attached pic... the right side where the peltier pad goes is totally isolated from chin access by the way the cage is mounted.
2. For the cooling device, you will need: A peltier cooling pad, a heat sink for the cold side, and a heat sink with a fan or a water cooling block for the hot side.
3. Apply thermal grease and a foam insulation layer between the hot and the cold side of the peltier, and attach both heat sinks. The cold side heat sink will be small and flat, and should fit flush with the chin hut. It will become ice cold, cooling down the entire wooden hut and the inside air. The hot side will sit outside the hut and will be cooled by a standard 12V cooling fan (just like in a computer). Make sure the hot side is adequately cooled, or the cold side won't work as effectively. You can see in the attached photo they drilled out a hole and added a grate to allow better airflow.
4. Attach the whole thing to an appropriate sized 12V power supply, and if you have access, a thermostat with on/off switch. It's not really necessary since during summer you can run the thing 24/7.
5. The cold side will get really cold, and the wooden hut will absorb enough of this cold to be comfortable for a Chin without freezing it's tail off. Inside the hut will be about 10-15 degrees Celsius lower than the ambient air temp.
6. The hut should attach to the cage in such a way that the chinchilla cannot access the wires or chew on them.
See pictures for a well-polished and somewhat commercial example of this cooling solution. With this little 'AC Hut', the chin will have a place to retreat during summer, without the added expense of running an AC unit all day and night.
This only seems to be a practical solution for a single chinchilla, but you could theoretically attach 2 peltier coolers to a larger sized hut and make it big enough for 2 chins.
