Experimental thermal/economic/exergetic evaluation of hot/cold water production process by thermoelectricity

Abstract

Although economic analysis of thermoelectric power generator has been carried out extensively by many researchers, economic reports on the reverse application of thermoelectric (heating/cooling) are completely immature. No experimental-data-based economic evaluation has been carried out before for cooling/heating aim of Peltier effect. Obviously, lack of economic analysis results in incorrect or imperfect decision-making on marketing area of any product. This paper focuses on cold and hot water production by thermoelectricity and provides a comprehensive thermal/economic/exergetic evaluation for said application using recently developed SPECO (Specific Exergy Costing) method. The effect of all thermal/flow and electrical parameters are investigated. The formulation/evaluation process of economic factors is explained step by step to make it ease understanding for the future readers. The results showed that, obtaining for example 1 kWh energy in the form of water cooling or heating is much more cheaper if the input power (DC voltage) of any individual thermoelectric is adjusted in lower value. However, it will take more time to obtain 1 kWh cooling/heating energy when the input power is low. Hence, it is recommended to produce the cold/hot water in no-peak water consumption times with lower input power and store it (instead of cold/hot water production with higher input power through shorter time).