Experimental Analysis of Thermoelectric Device to Produce Cooling Effect Using Solar Energy and Phase Changing Material

Abstract

This technical paper presents the design and experimental analysis of Thermoelectric Device to produce cooling effect using solar energy as power input. Solar energy is a co2 free renewable energy source. Solar power is an unlimited source of energy. Solar energy is stored in the battery through solar panel. Now the Dc current obtained from solar panel is stored in the battery and is converted into AC current using inverter. Thermoelectric device works on "Thermoelectric effect" which is based on the principles of Peltier effect and Seebeck effect. A model is created to understand the working of thermoelectric effect. Efforts are made in this paper to attain the lower temperature than the surroundings with and without application of phase changing materials. A Phase Changing Material (PCM) is a substance with a high heat of fusion, which is capable of storing and releasing high amount of energy at the time of melting and solidifying at a particular range of temperature. In present work, Formic acid is used as a PCM and results are compared to obtain the optimum process.