General principles for selecting the thermoelectric cooler (I)

Thermoelectric cooler (TEC) plays an important role in its application products. According to the characteristics, weakness and application range, the following problems should be determined when selecting TEC.

1.Determining TEC working state
The size and direction of working current can determine the cooling, heating and constant temperature performance. Although cooling mode is most commonly used, cooling and constant temperature performance cannot be ignored.

2.Determining the actual temperature of hot side when cooling
As TEC is a temperature component, it needs to be mounted on a good heat sink in order to achieve the best cooling effect. The condition of heat sink can determine the actual temperature on hot side. It is noteworthy that because of temperature gradient effect, the actual temperature on TEC hot side is always higher than that on the surface of heat sink. Similarly, there also exits temperature gradient between cooling space and the cold side of TEC.

3.DeterminingTEC working environment
According to working environment, the thermal insulation measures can be determined.

4.Determining working subject and heat load of TEC
Besides temperature effect on the hot side, the minimum temperature or maximum temperature difference that TEC can be up to is determined under condition of no-load and heat insulation. In actual work, TEC cannot achieve real heat insulation and heat load must exist, otherwise there is meaningless.

The left will be introduced in the next article.
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