Thermoelectric cooler (TEC) is built due to the Peltier effect, which both have the abilities of heating and cooling. When comparing with the traditional cooling method, vapor compression cooling, TEC has the following features:
1)
TECs need no refrigerant, so there is no leakage or pollution.
2)
Because of no mechanical rotation parts, when TEC works, there are no noise, no wear, long service life, with high reliability and convenient maintenance.
3) The cooling speed and temperature can be adjusted arbitrarily by changing the working current.
4)
The exchange of cold and hot side can be realized by changing electrical polarity, so it is very suitable for high temperature thermostat and other occasions
5)
TEC has a compact size. For example, a four-stage TEC that can reach the low temperature of 100℃ has the same size with a cigarette case does.
6)
The cooling capacity can be very small. It can as small as 1W or even smaller.
7)
TEC needs to be connected with a DC power supply.
8)
The cost of TEC is very expensive.
The main disadvantage is that when the cooling capacity is large, the efficiency will be declined and the power consumption is about twice as much as that of the vapor compression refrigeration. However, the smaller the cooling capacity of vapor compression is, the lower the efficiency will be. But the efficiency of TEC will remain unchanged. Therefore, the efficiency of TEC is higher than that of other cooling methods for the occasion with tens of watt.
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