Thermal Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Peltier Module

Abstract

In day-to-day life, the air conditioning industry is growing due to climate change and it affects adversely to the environment. Power consumption is a vital problem in air conditioning industry. Air condition industry affects the environment by using different refrigerant. It affects the ozone layer. Refrigerants effects on the environment are unpredictable. So, scientists and researchers are looking for an environmental friendly air conditioning system. In the concern of environment cooling using Peltier effect are viable. Peltier element directly produced a cooling effect by using electrical energy. This system does not use any refrigerant so it is the eco-friendly system. Global warming increases rapidly with the social development. To reduce these impacts, thermoelectric cooling systems are suggested as one of the promising technology in air conditioning industry. Also, the rising costs of energy and increasing environmental awareness have given enough focus on the use of the thermoelectric module. Advantages of thermoelectric cooling systems are, compact in size, required less space, less weight, high reliability, the absence of moving parts and no working fluids are required. It also possesses the advantage that it can be run by Direct Current (DC) which can be run by solar energy (Photovoltaic cells). In the present scenario, thermoelectric technology is utilizing in the spaces which required a precise temperature control. Despite many advantages, the Peltier element has only a very small market share in the field of refrigeration because of low efficiency and high material cost. In the present work thermal and performance evaluation of 191 W Peltier modules has been carried out. It is found that at certain current strength the cooling capacity stops increasing and decreased instead. Also, heating output increases parabolically and never reaches zero for the positive value of ‘I’.