Design and perfromance characteristics of a portable solar-driven thermoelectric heat pump under thunder bay extreme cold conditions in Northwestern Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Renewable & alternative non-conventional green energy technologies used for heat-pumping applications have shown real merits and received renewed interest in recent years especially in small-scale portable heating applications. Solar-driven thermoelectric heat pumping is one of these innovative technologies. In this paper, a thermoelectric heat pump that utilizes the Peltier effect has been designed, constructed and instrumented for suitable experimentation and characterization under Thunder Bay city extreme cold weather conditions in Canada. The thermoelectric test setup is powered using a renewable solar photovoltaic system and tested under different operating conditions. It was found that the PV-powered thermoelectric heat pump system has shown an acceptable performance with COP ranging from 0.98-1.22. Typical results showed that the average heat pumping power for the system was 72.1 W when the system was operated at an ambient temperature of -17 °C with an inside system temperature increased from approximately -5 °C to 25 °C.