Thermoelectric Cooling for Industrial Enclosures

The utilization of thermoelectric technology to cool industrial enclosures can provide a number of significant advantages for certain applications when compared to " conventional" cooling methods like vapor- compression refrigeration and water-cooled systems such as air conditioners and air-to- water heat exchangers. Using an electrical current passed through semiconductors to facilitate temperature change, thermoelectric coolers eliminate the need for refrigerants and operate with fewer moving parts -- cooling enclosures to temperatures below or near ambient conditions while producing far less noise and vibration than conventional cooling methods. This article discusses how thermoelectric coolers work, improvements that have been made in their efficiency and the advantages of thermoelectric cooling for industrial enclosures

The Concept of Thermoelectric Cooling

A French physicist named Jean Charles Peltier laid the groundwork for modern thermoelectric cooling in the 19 th Century as he experimented with electricity. Passing electric currents through 2 dissimilar metals ( wires made from copper and bismuth), Peltier noticed that a change in temperature occurred at the junctions between them. One junction point of the wires got hot while the other got cold. This phenomenon of the heat transfer of an electrical current at the junction of two dissimilar metals, known as the Peltier Effect , is the basis for thermoelectric cooling.