TEC loss mechanism (Ⅰ)

Figure 1 is the schematic diagram of thermoelectric cooler (TEC). TEC is made up of N-type semiconductor, P-type semiconductor, cold pate, hot plate and wires.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of TEC

In working process, TEC continuously absorbs heat from the cold side and release heat from the hot side. TEC has many advantages, such as no moving parts, no refrigerant, no pollution, no noise, high reliability, long service lifetime and so on.

However, it also has some disadvantages. Its biggest weakness is low cooling efficiency, which affects its own applications a lot. Based on TECs, heating or cooling devices need to be mounted heat sinks. Because of small distance between the cold side and the hot side heat sink, heat conduction, heat convection, and heat radiation will make TEC efficiency reduce. Its loss mechanism is as follows:

(1)   Heat convection loss
If air exists between cold side and hot side heat sink, heat convection will be generated. In the cooling process, there is a temperature gradient between the cold side and the hot side, the gas flow and the heat transfer are inevitable, and the cooling capacity is bound to be consumed.

Other loss mechanisms of TECs will be introduced in the next article.
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