Thermoelectric Air Conditioners for Tropical Countries

Abstract

Fuel and electricity consumption for buildings is a crucial aspect of the tropical countries’ policy for limiting national electricity use and thereby reducing atmospheric carbon emissions. Currently, the energy demand for space conditioning is significantly higher, dominated by vapor compression air conditioning systems that contribute 30% of the global electricity consumption in tropical zones. Application of thermoelectric cooling modules can be regarded as one of the favorable options to solve the issue of high electricity consumption and CO2 emissions. This chapter reviews the growing importance of thermoelectric air conditioning systems in buildings. Moreover, thermoelectric coolers that work on the principle of Peltier effect possess certain advantages such as compact size, no moving parts, easy cooling rate control, long life span, and no liquids or gases. In this study, the present scenario of energy supply, energy demand and energy consumption in different sectors of tropical countries is discussed in more detail. Furthermore, the working principles of conventional air conditioning systems are presented and compared with thermoelectric air conditioning principle. This chapter also includes the recent investigations on the advancements and developments in thermoelectric air conditioning for buildings. Finally, this study tends to understand how efficiently thermoelectric cooling systems generate cooling, and its potential to replace traditional air conditioning systems.