Utilization of condenser waste heat of cold storage as energy conversion system based on thermoelectric generators

Abstract

The energy conversion system based on thermoelectric generator (TEG) is a system that functions to convert heat energy from temperature differences into electrical energy. One of the heat sources that can be used is condenser waste heat. The condenser heat has a temperature of around 60-70 °C which could potentially be used as an energy source based on thermoelectric generators. This study aims to design an energy conversion system from condenser waste heat in a cold storage. The system design will be tested for variations in the series, parallel, and series-parallel TEG configurations. The second test used a temperature variation of 40 - 110 °C with an increase of 10 °C. The results showed that variations in the TEG configuration and temperature used in the thermoelectric generator had a major influence on the power produced. The series configuration is the best configuration that can produce the greatest power. The temperature that can produce the greatest power in this study is 110 °C where the higher the temperature, the higher the power produced. However, the test carried out on the condenser waste heat in cold storage produces quite a small amount of power because the temperature difference between the cold side and the hot side is relatively low so that the power produced is small. Then the test with a stabilizer also produces small power and an unstable current so that it cannot be used as an energy source in a power bank. However, this shows that condenser waste heat has good potential and prospects as an alternative energy source based on thermoelectric generators.