Energy Storage Science and Technology ›› 2020, Vol. 9 ›› Issue (4): 1178-1185.doi: 10.19799/j.cnki.2095-4239.2020.0031

• Energy Storage System and Engineering • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Solar air conditioning system for automobiles based on thermoelectric refrigeration

LOU"Fang(), ZHANG"Hengyun(), XIE"Daochang, LIU"Junliang, MAO"Dewen, SUN"Qifu, LI"Yuanjie   

  1. School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai 201620, China
  • Received:2020-01-14 Revised:2020-01-23 Online:2020-07-05 Published:2020-06-30
  • Contact: Fang LOU,Hengyun ZHANG E-mail:zhanghengyun@sues.edu.cn

Abstract:

In this study, a solar air conditioning system for automobiles is experimentally investigated based on thermoelectric refrigeration. The proposed system can achieve independent power supply and regulate the temperature in a simulated compartment space. The system includes a solar panel, lithium batteries, and other energy supply devices as well as the air conditioning and refrigeration systems containing semiconductor thermoelectric chips. The batteries comprise 1 × 4 prismatic lithium iron phosphate batteries connected in series. The size of the simulation box is 400 mm× 400 mm× 400 mm, and six temperature sensors are placed in the box to measure the air temperature. The thermocouples and heat flow meters are installed on the side wall to measure the wall temperature and heat flow through the wall. Subsequently, an experiment is conducted to examine the solar air conditioner’s performance in case of TECs connected in series or parallel. Subsequently, the cooling curves are obtained, the heat flow across the side wall is measured, and the refrigeration coefficient is calculated for both the connections. Results show that when cooling is performed at the ambient temperature of 27 C for 30 min, the average temperature in the closed box can reduce to 18.3 °C. In a series connection, he average refrigeration coefficient is 1.03 and the effective refrigeration coefficient is 0.79 (excluding the heat flow on the side wall). In a parallel connection, the average temperature reduces to 16.7 °C and the average refrigeration coefficient and effective refrigeration coefficients are 0.38 and 0.28 (excluding wall heat flow), respectively.

Key words: solar air conditioner, thermoelectric cooler, heat flow across wall, refrigeration coefficient, series connection

CLC Number: