AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THERMOELECTRIC HEAT PUMP WATER HEATER

This paper presents results of tests carried out to investigate the performance of the thermoelectric heat pump water heater. The work involved design and construction of a thermoelectric heat pump water heater. The performance of the thermoelectric heat pump water heater was investigated under different conditions. The experiment results show that when the temperature of water is not too high, the higher the operating voltage is, the larger the temperature difference between the hot and cold sides becomes and a smaller coefficient of performance is, however, when the temperature of water increases to a certain level, the higher the operating voltage is, the larger the coefficient of performance becomes. The temperature difference between the hot and cold sides becomes larger and the coefficient of performance decreases with the increase of the temperature of water. And when the temperature of water increases to a certain level, the temperature of cold sides becomes higher than the temperature of the environment, indicating that the thermoelectric heat pump loses the capability of absorbing heat from environment. Under an operating voltage of 16V and an ambient temperature of 25 degrees C, the coefficient of performance decreases from 1.51 to 1.06 when the temperature increases from 24 degrees C to 44 degrees C. These results can provide guides for the design and application of the thermoelectric heat pump water heater.