Experimental performance evaluation of a convective thermoelectric building envelope for building heating and cooling

Authors

Xiaoli Liu, Purdue University
Kazuaki Yazawa, Purdue University
Ming Qu, Purdue University
Orkan Kurtulus, Purdue University
Brian Norton, Technological University Dublin
Niall Holmes Dr., Technological University DublinFollow
Ruchita Jani, Technological University Dublin
Jorge Kohanoff, Queen's University Belfast
Lorenzo Stella, Queen's University Belfast
Conrad Johnston, Queen's University Belfast
Hongxi Yin, Washington University in St. Louis

Document Type

Article

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

Civil engineering

Publication Details

Energy & Buildings

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778822005473?via%3Dihub

Abstract

The thermoelectric building envelope (TBE) integrates thermoelectric materials with the building envelope for active space heating and cooling. The advantage of TBE heating and cooling includes its significantly low-profile design and no refrigerant use. Although there are existing studies evaluating TBE performance, they were based on limited operating conditions. The study aims to experimentally evaluate the heating and cooling performance of a TBE prototype under various operating conditions. The TBE prototype was installed between two psychrometric chambers, which simulated indoor and outdoor conditions. The prototype was tested at an indoor temperature of around 22.35–23.58 degrees C and outdoor temperatures from about 7.35 degrees C and 16.99 degrees C for heating and from 28.36 degrees C to 40.95 degrees C for cooling, with varied power inputs and fan conditions. The maximum coefficient of performance (COP) of TBE in heating mode is 3.2. The average heating COP of TBE with a current of 1.5 A in four winter scenarios is 1.37. The average heating COP of TBE operating with the current of 0.3–1.5 A at an outdoor temperature of 12 degrees C is 2.27. The TBE system demonstrates a better heating efficiency than an auxiliary electric heater for the heat pump system. The experimental results and evaluation obtained provide critical guidance for the deployment of TBE applications.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.112376

Recommended Citation

Xiaoli Liu, Kazuaki Yazawa, Ming Qu, Orkan Kurtulus, Brian Norton, Niall Holmes, Ruchita Jani, Jorge Kohanoff, Lorenzo Stella, Conrad Johnston, Hongxi Yin, Experimental performance evaluation of a convective thermoelectric building envelope for building heating and cooling, Energy and Buildings, Volume 273, 2022, 112376, ISSN 0378-7788, DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2022.112376.

Funder

This research is supported through a US-Ireland grant tri-funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF, 1805818), Science Foundation Ireland (SFI, 17/US/3424), and the Department for the Economy of Northern Ireland (DfE, USI 127).

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.