Heat pipes thermal performance for a reversible thermoelectric cooler-heat pump for a nZEB

The nZEB standards reduce the energy demand of these buildings to a minimum, obtaining this little energy from renewable resources. Taking these aspect into consideration, a thermoelectric cooler-heat pump is proposed to achieve the comfort temperature along the whole year. The same device can provi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Aranguren Garacochea, Patricia, Díaz de Garayo, Sergio, Martínez Echeverri, Álvaro, Araiz Vega, Miguel, Astrain Ulibarrena, David
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad Pública de Navarra
Repositorio:Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
OAI Identifier:oai:academica-e.unavarra.es:2454/32560
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2454/32560
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Thermoelectric cooler
Thermoelectric heat pump
nZEB
Air conditioning
Computational optimization
Descripción
Sumario:The nZEB standards reduce the energy demand of these buildings to a minimum, obtaining this little energy from renewable resources. Taking these aspect into consideration, a thermoelectric cooler-heat pump is proposed to achieve the comfort temperature along the whole year. The same device can provide heat in winter and it can cool down the buildings in summer just by switching the voltage supply polarity. Heat pipes are studied to work on both sides of the thermoelectric modules in order to optimize the heat transfer as these devices present really good thermal resistances and they can work in any position. However, they present pretty different thermal resistances if they work on the cold or on the hot side of the modules. A methodology to thermally characterize these heat exchangers working in both orientations is proposed and a validated computational model is developed to optimize the thermoelectric cooler-heat pump for a nZEB application. The number of thermoelectric modules, the position of the device, the ambient temperature and the air mass flow determine the operation and consequently they need to be studied in order to optimize the application.