Evaluation of Performance and Power Consumption of a Thermoelectric Module-Based Personal Cooling System-A Case Study

Thermoelectric (TE) technology is promising for reducing thermal discomfort of workers during their routine professional activities. In this manuscript, a preliminary evaluation of a newly developed personal cooling system (PCS) with flexible TE modules is presented based on an analysis of cooling efficiency and power consumption. For this purpose, tests with human participation were performed involving the monitoring of local skin temperature changes and electrical parameters of the controller. Thanks to TE cooling, a significant reduction of local skin temperature was observed at the beginning of the experiment, reaching as much as 6 & DEG;C. However, the observed effect systematically became weaker with time, with the temperature difference decreasing to about 3 & DEG;C. Cooling efficiency stayed at the same level over the ambient temperature range from 25 & DEG;C to 35 & DEG;C. The obtained results showed that a proper fitting of the PCS to the human body is a crucial factor influencing the PCS cooling efficiency.