Air Conditioned Seats Project

I have spent the past few weeks trying to decide between keeping my stock Sport cloth, getting Wet Okole covers, getting Clazzio leather covers, or Katzkin leather replacement kit. I am still undecided as of now, but all this research got me thinking... Many companies make thin heating elements that can slip under your seat fabric and supply heated seats without the element being felt through the cloth, but nobody makes a cooled version. Some newer vehicle come standard with air conditioned seats so it is most certainly possible, but I have yet to fins any decent aftermarket solutions. I am going to continue my research and try to find some way to route the rear floor vents (underneath front seats) up inside the seat using a flexible thin tubing, then attach it to a thin ventilated sheet that will disperse the air through the seat fabric. It has to be thin so that it cant be felt through the seat, but needs to be thick enough to have air travel through it. Whatever I find will need to be similar to perforated leather so that the air inside will be evenly distributed throughout the seat.

The following are pictures of the seat cushion as well as a "heated" seat element. My design will need to be similar in nature, but able to have air flow.

The tube which is connected to the AC duct will be ported up through the bottom of the seat and come out where the wire is in this picture. It will need one for the lower cushion and one for the upper.




This is what both seats will look like covered:




First, a flexible tube like this will connect to the ac vent under the seat, and port up to the underside of the seat where the fabric does not cover:




This is the underside of the seat where the above ducting will lead too:



The flexible ducting will then be connected to something like this to port the air from under the seat and will come out in between the back and butt portion of the seats where the wire is in the above picture. Keep in mind that this portion of the tubing will be UNDERNEATH the cloth, leather, or seat covers, whichever I go with. This is a lay-flat pvc tubing similar to a fire hose. The second picture is an ultra-thin butyl tube that may also work better:




From this point I am still in search of something that flat and soft and can carry and disperse air. I need something similar in size as the heated seat element shown above, but it need to be like a bag that is perforated. Any ideas or suggestions on this part would be great. Remember though, you will be sitting on it, so it needs to be strong enough to carry air without you just crushing it and it also needs to be soft and thin enough that you wont feel it through the seat fabric. I am thinking to use more of the lay-flat pvc tubing as above, but just seal one end of it and then perforate the rest of it will small holes throughout. Not sure yet.

Another idea is to cut small channels into the fabric, similar to the channels that are already there where the fabric is attached to give the seat contour and design, then run small tubing or piping through the channels which will be recessed into the fabric and sit flush so that you will not feel them when you sit on them. This may be the only way to get the air evenly circulated and dispersed throughout the seat. The tubing will have holes similar to the affects of misters that connect to your hose. This picture shows haw the grooves would be cut into the fabric. They would be slightly smaller, and probably fewer of them so that they do not interfere with comfort at all.



The tubes or ducting to be laid throughout the grooves in the fabric could be similar to this:




The tubes that are piped throughout the seat will then be connected to the flat pvc tubing or the thin butyl tubing with something like this:



Another idea was instead of trying to connect the tubing to ac vent, I could use a very small copper line (similar the the tubing behind a refrigerator that carries the refrigerant) and route the copper tubing throughout the grooves in the seat cushion, then somehow connect this to an onboard pump that cycles and cools the refrigerant in the lines just like a refrigerator works. This will make your seats freezing, but it also more of a risk of breaking the copper tubing and making a bad mess all over the truck. Another problem would be making this system flexible so that the seat could still move, and then you would also have to deal with installing a cooling system and mount it somewhere not visible. I would have to dissect an old mini-fridge or kegerator and see if I can somehow retro the cooling system to work inside the seats using 12v. This route is also more pricey, but it would work amazingly if successful though!

This is all a concept as of right now, so any ideas, recommendations, comments, suggestions, concerns are all greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

I hope you can pull off the engineering...sell it to Wet Okole...retire young.

I tell ya...I'm on the Wet Okole GB list...having 2nd thoughts because of the sweat issue some mentioned. If Wet Okole offered a cooling option...my concerns would go away.

 

I think it would be much easier to find an electric cooling pad for a bed or something and install that, don't you?

 

Yes. Not to squash your creativity, but the system as it is designed now seems too complicated. Typically, innovation is done by making things simpler, not more complex.

 

I think this is a great idea. Looks like you'll need a very breathable cloth material for the air to easily flow through in order to feel it

 

I was the person who first mentioned the seating issue, hence the reason for this project

That would be simple and easy, but I have spent hours searching and have yet to find such a product. I have been searching specifically for automotive cooling pads though, not for beds. If they exist then I just need one small enough and convert it to 12v and problem solved!! Ill have to search harder for a "cooling pad"

 

Dude! You just said it! You've innovated!

Scratch the complicated idea and run with this one.

 

Yes, it is a very complicated and over-engineered project, but at the moment, until I can find a "cooling pad" that fits this application, then this is the only solution I can think of. its just a start to good idea. This entire idea may be thrown out the door and start fresh if I can develop a much more simplistic design. If I can find this cooling pad then this project will go from very difficult to very easy. Fingers crossed

 

As a Native Arizonian....

 

Check out this web site. Just a quick search on Google for electric cooling pad. They have automotive seat cushions so they already have them in 12vdc. No idea how much or if they really work. Great idea though!

http://www.coolorheat.com/

 

They have lots of items like this but I want something that installs UNDER the fabric and can be designed to look and feel OEM

 

HAHA exact site I was just on! Getting closer

 

They are advertised as "air conditioned" seats... not sure how exactly that works though. I am trying to use the "AC" idea combined with a "heat pad" and develop a perfect solution

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/air-conditioned-seat1.htm





I really doubt you're going to get enough air pressure from the existing air ducts to effectively push through some little tubes in the seat.

 

Why reinvent the wheel, search how the Lexus's of the world have their setup. Maybe buy the pieces from a wrecked IS350 sitting in a junk yard.

 

Thermo-electric cooling plates.

 

The cooling system on the f150 looks like it uses a Peltier junction cooling system built into the seat (think 12v refrigerated ice chest) with its own force air setup. No integration into the a/c system at all.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Air-Cooled-Seat-Cover-Beige/dp/B000NHLARM

 

http://www.protechcarcovers.com/a/c-seat-covers

 

While your at it do the glove box as well