Análise energética, exergética e exergoeconômica de um protótipo de ar-condicionado utilizando módulos termoelétricos

Abstract

In this work an energetic, exergetic and exergoeconomic analysis, through the SPECO method, is carried out of an air conditioning prototype using thermoelectric modules. Two main tests were carried out: the first varying the water temperature and the second varying the system inlet current. Through the energy analysis, the cooling capacity (Qc) and the system performance coefficient (COP) were calculated. It was seen that it is more advantageous for the system to work with more modules using lower input currents. By the exergy analysis, the exergy destruction, the exergy destruction efficiency, the cooling/heating exergies and the exergy cooling efficiency were calculated. It was noted that cooling using thermoelectric modules has low exergy demand and a solution to improve efficiency would be to feed the system with a low exergy source such as, for example, photovoltaic panels. By the exergoeconomic analysis, the cost per cooling/heating unit (cq) and the cooling cost (Ċ qc) was calculated. It was seen the importance of a previous exergoeconomic study before designing this type of air conditioner, in order to avoid that the system works under conditions that cause peak points in cq. In addition, a test was carried out simulating an environment to be refrigerated. With a current of 3A, the prototype was able to lower the temperature by 10.4 °C in just 5 minutes of operation. With this study, it is concluded that the proposed thermoelectric refrigeration system, in the characteristics and conditions of the tests, had satisfactory results and that the energetic, exergetic and exergoeconomic analyzes were effective to show under which conditions the system has better performance and lower cost.