What is the Peltier element, its characteristics and mode of operation
Of course, you know very well that with the help of an electric current may be heated objects such as a soldering iron, kettle, etc. Did you know that electricity can also be cooled? And I'm not talking about refrigerators where Freon compressor chases, and we are talking about the so-called Peltier element. In this article I will tell you in detail about this item. So, let's begin.
Content
Historical reference
How does the fuser
The inner Peltier thermocouple device
Advantages and disadvantages of such an element
product labeling and its interpretation
Technical parameters of the Peltier element
Field of application data elements
How to check the serviceability of the Peltier module
conclusion
Historical reference
Back in 1834 scientists from France J. Sh Peltier opened very interesting effect when an electric current flows through the conductor. Thus, if in a closely spaced dissimilar conductors to pass an electric current, one of which heats and the other opposite cools. And the quantity of generated heat and cold connected directly proportional to the magnitude of the transmitted current.
If the vector direction of the current change, and the heating and cooling sides also swapped. About this discovery, which was later called the Peltier effect, for many years, just simply forgotten while in the second half of the twentieth century, no first semiconductor elements were produced Peltier.
How does the fuser
The basis absolutely any thermoelectric module based on the principle difference in electron energy level, is one conductive element is a region of high conductivity and the other with low conductivity. And if you combine these wires and pass through their current, the electrons to pass from the low-energy region into a high need to save energy. In this case, an area where the electron energy is absorbed begins to cool.
If you change the polarity of the element, the cooling effect will change to heating.
This effect is observed in absolutely all elements, but the real traces of this phenomenon begin to appear when the semiconductors used.
The inner Peltier thermocouple device
The thermoelectric module (TEM) is implemented in N-th number of thermocouples. Wherein the thermocouple itself is formed of a pair of heterogeneous type semiconductors, which are interconnected by a plate of copper.
These semiconductors are made of salts of metals such as tellurium, bismuth, selenium and antimony.
Such thermocouples are connected in a daisy chain can be in one device arbitrarily many. And the whole structure is closed on both sides of the ceramic plates.
Since the number of thermocouples may be different, the means and the power of the Peltier element can also vary very much.
Flowing a constant current element heats one portion (e.g., upper) and second (lower) conversely cools. If you change the polarity of the heating and cooling sides swapped.
There is one very interesting feature of the functioning of such an element. If in the process of forced cooling of the other side that is subjected to heat, the side is cooled further cooled and the temperature difference with the air can be dozens of degrees.
Advantages and disadvantages of such an element
Unfortunately, not yet invented such products have had only pros, so let's look at the positive and negative sides of the Peltier element.
pros articles
1. On the size of the product can be absolutely anything.
2. The product does not have moving parts, which means that it is completely silent.
3. Only by changing the polarity of the power heating surface element is converted into coolant.
cons products
1. The only, but the most significant drawback of Tam considered his little efficiency. And the problem of low efficiency lies in the fact that electrons are inherently possess dual nature and is transferred as charge and thermal energy and to create highly Peltier element, material need highly conductive of electrical current and low heat conductivity, but such material is not yet coined.
product labeling and its interpretation
On any element present tsiferny alphanumeric code that looks like this:
And that's how it stands:
The first two letters are always "THOSE"Always the same and mean that this is a thermocouple.
The third letter indicates the dimension of the module "FROM"- a standard module, "S" - small module
And the first number that comes after the letters, says the number of layers (stages) in the element.
Further, three-reaching figures show the number of thermocouples in a module (in this element 127 pairs).
The last two digits indicate the current rating, in our version the current is 10 Amps.
Technical parameters of the Peltier element
The main parameters for the elements are as follows:
- Q max - cold performance. This parameter is calculated from the maximum current and the temperature difference between the opposing electrodes of the Peltier module.
- Imax - current, wherein the temperature difference reaches its maximum.
- U max - limiting voltage.
- Resistence - resistance to the internal components of the product.
- COP - is the efficiency of our products. This indicator only in the most "cool" modules barely reaches 50%, and those elements that we can offer Chinese manufacturers have an efficiency of 20% to 30%.
Field of application data elements
These thermoelectric modules have been applied in the following areas:
Mobile (automotive) refrigerators.
Mobile thermal generator. In such products used the opposite effect, i.e. by heating one side of the element and cooling the other, generating electric energy occurs.
dehumidifiers.
Laboratory incubators.
Water Coolers.
How to check the serviceability of the Peltier module
conclusion
That's all I wanted to tell you today about the Peltier element. If you want to buy this item, then I bought it in this store. In future articles, I will discuss how to build a thermoelectric generator, so if you liked the article on the basis of this element, then join the channel and estimate its Like and repost. Thank you for your attention!