Experimentation on solar thermoelectric module for cooling and heating

Abstract

Now a day’s energy conservation plays a major role in day to day life due to energy crisis. Thus a solution has to be given to utilize the heat energy dissipated to environment for the useful heating applications and conserve waste heat energy. The thermoelectric effect has been proven as a source of cooling and small power generation as defined by the Peltier-Seebeck effect. A novel idea of this is to utilize both heating and cooling effects generated by Thermo-Electric module so we have developed a system which will produce cooling effect without the use of mechanical devices and also this system does not require working fluids or any moving parts. Solar panel was used to power up thermoelectric modules (TE-12706 module) with the help of a battery in order to provide continuous power. The waste heat regeneration unit consisting of two parallel copper plates and a water channel with staggered fins was installed above the hot side of thermoelectric cooler (TEC) and a fan was installed in colder side for cooling purpose. The heat dissipated from the thermoelectric cooler can be removed by the cooling water such that the performance of the cooling module is elevated. The system was tested in different flow rates of water for effective utilization.