Comparison of a thermoelectric cooling system and a groundwater heat pump

Conference · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5979072

Mei, V C; Chen, F C; Mathiprakasam, B

The performance of a groundwater thermoelectric (TE) heat pump system, based on today's state of the art TE materials, was calculated and compared with that of a conventional groundwater heat pump under the same water inlet temperature and flow rate. It was found that the TE system was quite competitive for cooling, particularly for groundwater temperatures below 18/sup 0/C (64/sup 0/F). The TE system performed poorly for heating mode operation. A cooling coefficient of performance (COP) of 6.4 could be realized by a properly designed TE system at a groundwater temperature of 13/sup 0/C (55/sup 0/F), compared with a COP of 4.35 for a conventional heat pump. For heating mode operation at the same water temperature, the TE system achieved a COP of 1.82, while the conventional heat pump performed at a COP of 3.72. TE systems for many buildings, where part of the areas require year-round cooling, can be a good alternative if groundwater of sufficiently low temperature is available. 8 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA); Midwest Research Inst., Kansas City, MO (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5979072
• Report Number(s): CONF-871238-1; ON: DE88001753
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320106* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Building Equipment-- (1987-)
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DATA
GROUND WATER
HEAT PUMPS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
NUMERICAL DATA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
STATISTICAL DATA
TESTING
THERMOELECTRIC COOLERS
WATER
WATER SOURCE HEAT PUMPS