Potential Benefits of Thermoelectric Element Used With Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers

This paper investigates the application of thermoelectric devices to enhance the performance of conventional vapor compression based air conditioning systems. Thermoelectric devices are capable of converting electrical energy into thermal heat-pumping at a very high efficiency. In this paper, a validated air-cooled heat exchanger simulation tool is used to study the effect of adding thermoelectric devices between the fins and tubes to enhance heat transfer. Further, a validated system simulation tool is used to study the effect of using a thermoelectric device to increase the refrigerant sub-cooling at the outlet of a condenser. The study is conducted for several refrigeration and airconditioning applications with various refrigerants.