The Development And Research On Small Thermoelectric Refrigerator (Dehumidifier)

The thermoelectric effect discovered more than 150 years, had been less applied in practical fields during more than 100 years because of its inefficiency. Until 1950's , with the discovery of high performance materials, thermoelectric refrigeration technology began to be applied in engineering fields, but compared with other refrigeration technology such as mechanical refrigeration and absorbed refrigeration, its efficiency is lower, which limits its application and development in building environment refrigeration fields. However, thermoelectric refrigeration has many unique advantages, such as simple constructure, no moving parts, no pollution, precise control. So in some special refrigeration condition, it can't be substituted by other refrigeration technology. Following the direction of building sustainable society of central government of this technology, thermoelectric refrigeration has been regarded and applied in many fields gradually.On the basis of the analysis of fundamental principle of thermoelectric refrigeration, the steady mathematical model of the thermoelectric system was founded. According to the model, the theoretical analysis and calculation are made on various working conditions, and analyzed theoretically the effects on thermoelectric system which caused by hot and cold temperature difference, the device's effective system figure of merit, the properties of the heat changers, which established theoretical basic for the opening up and design of the thermoelectric system and its performance test.Through combining thermoelectric cooler and thermo-siphon radiator ,author research and invent a new type of thermoelectric refrigerator(dehumidifier).Its thermal COP value can reach 2.0 and above, and 1.0 when in refrigerating.As for prospects, TE technology will be under the concerned again as the prohibition of CFCs in the whole world before long.It offers a technological approach for developing distributed refrigerating or air-conditionging system in building,and initiates a new idea for low-grade energy utilization and dispersed waste energy recovering.It is expected that TE cooling would be one of the leading approaches of the electronic components cooling.