Performance of a thermoelectric heat pump with recirculation and regenerative heat recovery

Abstract

In this paper, the thermoelectric heat pump performance is enhanced by air recirculation and regenerative energy recovery. Compared to conventional vapor-compressed heat pumps, TEHP is more stable, safer, and flexible in arrangement, but is relatively less efficient. Therefore, the use of air recirculation combined with regenerative heat recovery is dedicated to increasing the efficiency of the heat pump and recovering some of the energy, thus reducing energy consumption. Experimental results show that the COP of the air recirculation TEHP is as high as about 3.7. At 1 m/s air velocity, the COP with recirculation is 51–73% higher than without recirculation. In the system experiments for heat exchanger test applications, the percentage of regenerative heat recovery was up to 12%. The combination of regenerative heat recovery and air recirculation further improved the energy efficiency of the heat exchanger test system to a maximum energy efficiency ratio of 2.85. The energy-saving measures of TEHP with recirculation and regenerative heat recovery resulted in better energy savings than the conventional heat exchanger test device with resistance heating. It is of great reference significance in fields of thermoelectric technology applications.