Implementation Phase Change Material at Cold Side of Thermoelectric Cooler Box as Thermal Energy Storage

In a particular application, thermoelectric refrigeration has an unrivaled excellence which other refrigeration systems may fail to accomplish it. Especially in application related in medical purposes. An accurate temperature stability is essential for this application. This study examined the performance of a thermoelectric cooler box with a cold sink that fills with Phase Change Material (PCM). Two different PCM were tested and analyzed for their energy efficiencies related to the thermoelectric cooler box. The cooler box has 240 × 260 × 265 mm dimension and is supplied with two Peltier modules. The power supply to the module was controlled by a thermo-controller and set to interrupt the supply if a temperature condition was achieved during the test. The purpose is to exchange the cooling supplied from thermoelectric with cold PCM inside the container. Thus it can reduce the power consumption of thermoelectric. The result shows that PCM 2 which mixed of 95% of tap water and 5% soya ester could hold the temperature of the cooler box more stable and longer than tap water as PCM 1. Furthermore, the result also shows that using PCM 2 has potential energy storage in thermoelectric application devices compared with PCM 1.