Effect of a Heat Exchanger on COP of a Thermoelectric Cooler Powered by Solar Panels

Abstract

COP (coefficient of performance) of a thermoelectric cooler so far is still less than 1. Some efforts have been conducted to improve the COP. Adding a heat exchanger is suspected to be able to improve COP. This study tried to investigate the thermoelectric cooler with and without a heat exchanger. This study aimed to know the effect of adding a heat exchanger on COP and to examine the cooler temperatures. The study used 1 thermoelectric module, a small pump, a heat exchanger, and a cooler box with a size of 40.8 cm x 32.6 cm x 53.8 cm. The experiments were conducted for 14400 s. The cooler box was filled with clean water. The power used in this study was obtained from solar panels. The results indicated that using a heat exchanger could increase COP by about 48% and the cooler temperature could decrease by 7.4 - 9.1%.