Application of thermoelectricity and photovoltaic energy to air conditioning

An air conditioning system for housing has been designed. It is based on the thermoelectricity technology and supplied with photovoltaic solar panels. The equipment has a power of 1400 W and consists of 48 Peltier pellets, integrated in the ceiling of the room, with aluminium plates as heat exchangers. For the design of the cold thermoelectric device, a iterative calculus modelling has been implemented, where analytical expressions, semi-empirical formulation and computational fluid dynamics are combined. This air conditioning system presents several advantages with respect to the vapour compressor ones, such as: more ecological, because it does not need any fluid refrigerants, lower level of noise and vibrations, minimum maintenance because of the reduction of mobile parts, higher thermal comfort since it does not need interior fan. One more advantage is that in summer time, when solar radiation is higher, the photovoltaic panels electric energy obtained is maximum and that coincides with the highest refrigeration demand of the air conditioning system for housing.