Development of an effective TE cooler box for food storage

• Published in: Case studies in thermal engineering Vol. 28; p. 101564
• Main Authors: Lawal, Olarewaju Mubashiru, Chang, Zhibing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2021; Elsevier
• Subjects: Cooler box; COP; Heat transfer; Storage; TE module; Temperature; Cooler box; Temperature; TE module; Storage; COP; Heat transfer
• ISSN: 2214-157X; 2214-157X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.csite.2021.101564

The development of a cooling system with a low power supply and evenly distributed temperature for food storage is challenging. This paper proposed a thermoelectric (TE) cooler box that adopt both conduction and convection heat transfer to solve the problems. The cooler box is made of three-layer wall, six TE modules (TEC1-12706), six inner heatsinks with fan, six outer heatsinks with fan, six top fans, two-power supply, a contactor, a switch, and a thermostat. With the six TE modules power consumption of 37.7 W at 3.18 A, the obtained results showed steady temperature distributions with time at various points of the layers including the cold and hot region. Meanwhile, the cooling capacity changes and became steady with the time. The conduction heat transfer is the dominant of the total heat transfer (Qc). The theoretical COP(coefficient of performance) using Carnot decreases with constant time, where COPsink of heatsink is approximately 1.6 higher than COPc of TE module. Furthermore, the experimental COPexp increases sharply before actualizing stability with experimental time compared to previous findings. Therefore, the TE cooler box is applicable for fruits and vegetable storage, and in areas of limited power supply.