Experimental investigation of cold-side airflow effects on the performance of a thermoelectric cooling system

¹ Department of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineering, Politeknik Negeri Bandung, Bandung 40559, Indonesia
² Department of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, and Energy Engineering, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung 411, Taiwan

^* Corresponding author: bowo_yuli@polban.ac.id

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of cold-side airflow on the performance of a thermoelectric cooling system. A test chamber equipped with a single thermoelectric module (TEC-12710) was developed, featuring a controlled damper to regulate airflow across the cold-side heatsink. Experiments were conducted at four damper angles (0°, 30°, 60°, and 90°) to evaluate changes in airflow, surface temperature, cooling capacity (Qc), power input, and coefficient of performance (COP). The results show that increasing airflow on the cold side leads to a significant decrease in the hot- cold temperature difference (ΔT_hc), an increase in Q_c (from 27.2 W at 0° to 42.7 W at 90°), and an improvement in COP (reaching a maximum of 1.14). Meanwhile, power consumption declined with increasing airflow. A strong negative linear correlation was found between ΔT_hc and COP (R² = 98.4%), confirming that better thermal balance enhances efficiency. This study confirms the importance of cold-side airflow management in thermoelectric cooling systems and suggests further development through temperature- based damper control and variations in heatsink and airflow channel configurations to improve overall system performance.