Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 19791993

www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Comparative investigation of thermoelectric air-conditioners versus vapour compression and absorption air-conditioners
S.B. Riat *, Guoquan Qiu
Institute of Sustainable Energy and Technology, School of the Built Environment, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK Received 23 November 2003; accepted 15 February 2004 Available online 13 May 2004

Abstract This paper compares the performance of three types of domestic air-conditioners, namely the vapour compression air-conditioner (VCAC), the absorption air-conditioner (AAC) and the thermoelectric airconditioner (TEAC). The basic cycles of the three types of air-conditioning systems are described and methods to calculate their coecients of performance are presented. General specication data for each type of air-conditioner are given, and performance characteristics are presented. The comparison shows that although VCACs have the advantages of high COP and low purchase price, use of these systems will be phased out due to their contribution to the greenhouse eect and depletion of the ozone layer. AACs are generally bulky, complex and expensive but operate on thermal energy, so their operational consumption is low. TEACs are environmental friendly, simple and reliable but still very expensive at present. Their low COP is an additional factor limiting their application for domestic cooling. TEACs however, have a large potential market as air-conditioners for small enclosures, such as cars and submarine cabins, where the power consumption would be low, or safety and reliability would be important. 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Air-conditioner; Vapour compression; Absorption; Thermoelectric; Coecient of performance; Thermodynamic cycle; Depreciation

Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-0115-951-3158; fax: +44-0115-951-3159. E-mail address: saa.riat@nottingham.ac.uk (S.B. Riat).

1359-4311/$ - see front matter 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2004.02.010

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Nomenclature COPir;c coecient of performance of vapour compression in an actual irreversible cooling cycle COPir;h coecient of performance of vapour compression heat pump in an actual heating cycle COPR coecient of performance of absorption refrigeration system COPR;rev coecient of performance of absorption refrigeration system in a reversible cycle COPc coecient of performance of thermoelectric cooling system COPc;id coecient of performance of ideal thermoelectric cooling system COPc;opt maximum coecient of performance of ideal thermoelectric cooling system COPh;id coecient of performance of ideal thermoelectric heating system COPh;opt maximum coecient of performance of ideal thermoelectric heating system thermal capacity ratio of hot/cold uid through two heat sinks in a thermoelectric Cr system K total thermal conductance of thermoelectric components cooling capacity in a thermoelectric cooling system Qc heating capacity in a thermoelectric heating system Qh heat energy given to the generator in absorption refrigeration system Qgen heat energy that evaporator absorbs from the cooled space, e.g., cooling capacity QL R total electrical resistance of thermoelectric components ambient temperature outside the condenser in cooling mode Ta ambient temperature outside the evaporator in heating mode Ta0 cold side temperature at ceramic plate location in a thermoelectric module Tc hot side temperature at ceramic plate location in a thermoelectric module Th arithmetical average temperature of a thermocouple Tm temperature of the cooled space TL temperature of heat source that supplies heat to generator Ts uid inlet temperature in a cold-side heat sink of a thermoelectric system Tcin uid outlet temperature in a cold-side heat sink of a thermoelectric system Tcout uid inlet temperature in a hot-side heat sink of a thermoelectric system Thin Thout uid outlet temperature in a hot-side heat sink of a thermoelectric system Troom room air temperature outside the evaporator 0 room air temperature outside the condenser in heating mode Troom V electric voltage exerted on a thermoelectric cooling/heating device value of an air-conditioner after n years of operation Vn W input electric energy in a thermoelectric cooling/heating system Wpump electric energy expended by liquid pump in absorption refrigeration system Z gure of merit of thermocouple Seebeck coecient apn DT temperature dierence of cold and hot side of thermoelectric components DTcond temperature dierence between refrigerant in condenser and ambient temperature

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0 DTcond temperature dierence between refrigerant in condenser and indoor air temperature in heating mode DTevap temperature dierence between refrigerant in evaporator and indoor air temperature 0 temperature dierence between refrigerant in evaporator and outdoor ambient temDTevap perature in heating mode

1. Introduction There are three main types of air-conditioning systems, each with their specic merits and disadvantages. Vapour compression air-conditioners have a high COP and large cooling/heating capacities but their use of ozone-depleting CFCs and noisy operation, especially in the case of a window-type air-conditioner, are signicant disadvantages. A split-system central air-conditioner, which has an outdoor metal cabinet containing the condenser and compressor and an indoor cabinet containing the evaporator, may mitigate system noise, and use of new refrigerants, such as R134a to replace CFCs, may reduce damage to the ozone layer, but the COP of the system is also reduced when alternative refrigerants are used. Absorption air-conditioners have intermediate values of COP and the advantage of utilising waste heat or recovered heat, but these systems are generally bulky and heavy. Thermoelectric air-conditioners are portable and low noise, but have relatively low COPs and are expensive. Furthermore, these systems operate using DC power, and so would need a DC power converter if powered by AC mains. However they could be powered directly by PV or fuel cells. Bansal and Martin compared the three main types of refrigerators, i.e., vapour compression, absorption and thermoelectric [1], and provided test results for these. Air-conditioners, however, should have better performance than refrigerators as they require a smaller temperature dierence than refrigerators.

2. Thermodynamic cycles and principles of the three types of air-conditioners Air conditioners employ the same operating principles and basic components as domestic refrigerators but the temperature required in the evaporator for air-conditioners is higher than that needed for refrigerators. As a result, air conditioners should have higher COPs than refrigerators. The three main types of thermodynamic cycle for air-conditioning systems are discussed in the following sections. 2.1. Vapour compression (VC) cycle Vapour compression air-conditioners without a reversing valve work only as a cooler in summer, but most VC air-conditioners can work as a cooler and a heater all year round, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. In the cooling cycle, the high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant (R134a) vapour comes from the compressor, then enters the condenser to reject heat to the ambient environment, thus refrigerant vapour turns into liquid that is throttled in the

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Reversing valve 1 4

4
Outdoor coil Condenser fan Compressor

1 fan Indoor coil Evaporator 1 High-pressure vapour 2 High-pressure liquid 3 Low-pressure liquid-vapor 4 Low-pressure vapor

Expansion valve

AIR-CONDITIONER IN COOLING MODE

Fig. 1. Schematic of VC cooling cycle.

Reversing valve 4 1

4
Outdoor coil Evaporator fan Compressor

1 fan Indoor coil Condenser 1 High-pressure vapour 2 High-pressure liquid 3 Low-pressure liquid-vapor 4 Low-pressure vapor

Expansion valve

AIR-CONDITIONER IN HEATING MODE

Fig. 2. Schematic of VC heating cycle.

expansion valve (capillary tube), reducing its temperature and pressure in the evaporator. The low-temperature and low-pressure liquidvapour mixture in the evaporator absorbs the heat from cooling the indoor air, then the outgoing low-pressure refrigerant is superheated to ensure no liquid remains before entering the compressor. The actual irreversible Carnot cycle COPir;c for the VC device can be given as: COPir;c Troom DTevap Ta Troom DTcond DTevap 1

Obviously, the real irreversible COPir is always less than the ideal Carnot cycle COPcarnot for the same thermal source temperatures, and decreases with increasing DTevap and DTcond . From Eq. (1), the impact on COPir of DTevap is greater than that of DTcond , so the decrease of DTevap is signicant. For normal operation of air-conditioners, the outlet air temperature is generally required to be lower than the inlet air temperature in the evaporator by at least 8 C, i.e., the DTevap will be larger than 8 C or more. With regard to the condenser, the ambient temperature is generally required to be less than 43 C, so the cooling device operates eciently. In the heating mode, as shown in Fig. 2, the indoor evaporator shown in Fig. 1 is converted into a condenser, and the outdoor condenser into an evaporator, by means of a reversing valve. The device becomes a heat pump which transfers heat from the outdoor ambient air to the indoor air.

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In order to make the heat pump work eciently, the ambient temperature is generally required to be higher than )5 C. The COPir;h of the heat pump may be given as: COPir;h 1
0 Ta0 DTevap 0 0 0 Troom Ta0 DTcond DTevap

2.2. Absorption refrigeration cycle The vapour-compression cycle is described as a work-operated cycle because the elevation of pressure of the vapour refrigerant is accomplished by a compressor that requires work. However, the absorption cycle is referred to as a heat-operated cycle because most of the operating cost is associated with providing the heat that drives o the refrigerant vapour from the high-pressure liquid in the generator. The heat input may come from the combustion of oil, gas, natural gas, geothermal energy, solar energy or industrial waste heat. Indeed, there is a requirement for some work in the absorption cycle to drive the pump, but the amount of work required for a given quantity of refrigeration is minor compared with that needed in the vapour-compression cycle. The basic absorption cycle is shown in Fig. 3. The dotted-frame assembly with absorber and generator can be regarded as a thermal compressor, so the absorption cycle is similar to the vapour-compression cycle. For air-conditioning, the working pair is usually LiBrwater solution

Fig. 3. Absorption system with heat exchanger.

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(water as the refrigerant, LiBr as the absorbent). The thermal compressor elevates the pressure of water vapour from the evaporator and provides the high-pressure water vapour to the condenser by means of absorber and generator (one major advantage of the absorption cycle compared to the vapour-compression cycle is the much lower work required to compress liquid rather than compress vapour). Low-pressure water vapour from the evaporator is absorbed by the concentrated LiBrwater solution in the absorber. If this absorption process were executed adiabatically, the temperature of the solution would rise and eventually the absorption of water vapour would cease. To perpetuate the absorption process, the absorber is cooled by water or air and ultimately rejects this heat to the atmosphere. The pump receives the diluted lowpressure solution from the absorber, elevates its pressure, and delivers it to the generator. In the generator, heat from a high-temperature source drives o the water vapour that has been absorbed by the solution. The concentrated solution returns to the absorber through a throttling valve whose purpose is to provide a pressure drop to maintain the pressure dierence between the generator and absorber. The heat-exchanger between the absorber and generator improves the performance of the cycle. To summarise, the pattern of heat ow to and from the four components in the absorption cycle is: High-temperature heat enters the generator while low-temperature heat from the air being cooled enters the evaporator; heat rejection from the cycle occurs at the absorber and condenser through the circuited water or air and this is released to the atmosphere. The COP of absorption refrigeration systems is dened as: COPR Desired output QL QL  Required input Qgen Wpump Qgen Wpump  Qgen 3

The maximum COP of an absorption refrigeration system is determined by assuming that the entire cycle is totally reversible, i.e., the heat from the source Qgen were transferred to a Carnot heat engine and the work output of this heat engine W gth;C Qgen is supplied to a Carnot refrigerator to remove heat from the cooled space. Note that QL W COPR;C gth;C Qgen COPR;C . Thus the overall COP of an absorption refrigeration system under reversible conditions becomes:    QL Ta TL TL Ts Ta COPR;rev gth;C COPR;C 1 4 Ts Ta TL Qgen Ts Ta TL where Ta , TL and Ts are the temperatures of the atmosphere, cooled space and heat source, respectively. Several trends are detectable from Eq. (4), namely, as Ta increases, the COP decreases; as TL increases, the COP increases; as Ts increases, the COP increases. Actual absorption COP is generally less than half that of an ideal reversible refrigeration cycle. In certain respects, applying the term COP to the absorption system is unfortunate because the value is appreciably lower than that of the vapour-compression cycle (e.g., 0.7 versus 2.8). The comparatively low value of COP of absorption cycles should not be prejudice judgement of the absorption system, due to the dierent denitions of COP in the two cycles. Energy in the form of work is normally much more expensive than energy in the form of heat. In addition, use of coal gas in the summer can trade-o the peak of electricity consumption due to the use of VCACs. Solar energy and industrial waste heat are abundantly available source of energy that

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would otherwise be wasted. However, absorption refrigeration systems are generally bulky, complex and, of course, expensive in terms of initial investment. Their refrigeration capacity is generally tens of hundreds, even thousands of kilowatts, so they are commonly used in industrial applications and recently in domestic central air-conditioners. The absorption cycle is not used in heating mode. The heat supplying to the generator can be applied directly for heating. 2.3. Thermoelectric (TE) cycle When two dissimilar metals or semiconductors are connected and the two junctions held at dierent temperatures, there are ve phenomena taking place simultaneously [2]. These are the Joule eect, the Fourier eect, the Seebeck eect, the Peltier eect and the Thomson eect. All of these are irreversible phenomena. The Peltier eect is of greatest interest for air-conditioning. In a circuit containing two junctions between dissimilar conductors or semiconductors, heat may be transferred from one junction to the other by applying a DC source. Semiconductors, such as Bi2 Te3 , are better than metals for producing the Peltier eect. Thermoelectric coolers (Peltier devices) utilize semiconductor Peltier eects, and Fig. 4 shows the principle of thermoelectric cooling. The heat from the cooled space is transferred through n- and p-type semiconductor thermoelements to the hot-side heat sink which rejects the heat to the environment. If the direction of the electric current is reversed, the direction of the heat ow through the semiconductor materials is also reversed. The cooled space is turned into a heated space, i.e., the airconditioning system operates in the heating mode.

Fig. 4. Schematic of the thermoelectric air-conditioner.

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In the cooling mode, the cooling capacity Qc mcp c Tcout Tcin , the dissipated heat in the hot-side heat sink Qh mcp h Thout Thin , the input electric power W Qh Qc , and the cooling COPc and the heating COPh may be expressed by Eqs. (5) and (6). COPc where Cr mcp h Qh is heat capacity ratio: In the heating mode; COPh 1 COPc mcp c W 6 Qc 1 Thout Thin W Cr 1 T T
cout cin

A conventional thermoelectric air-conditioner (heat pump) usually consists of a large number of n- and p-type bulk semiconductor thermoelements connected electrically in series by copper strips and sandwiched between two electrically insulating, but thermally conducting ceramic plates, as shown in Fig. 4. If some parameters of thermoelectric thermoelements are available, the ideal COPc may be expressed as: COPc;id
DT 1 V Qc apn Tc KR V 2 V apn DT W

In the heating (heat pump) mode, the COPh can be expressed as: COPh;id
KRDT 1 Qh apn Th VR 2 V V apn DT W

where apn is the Seebeck coecient, V/K; R is the electrical resistance, X; K is thermal conductance, W/K; V is electrical voltage as shown in Fig. 4; DT Th Tc is temperature dierence of cold and hot side of thermoelements, K; Th and Tc is hot side and cold side temperature at the ceramic plate locations, respectively. oCOP By solving oV c;id 0, we can obtain the maximum COPc;id , i.e., COPc;opt , its corresponding work voltage VR;opt or work current Iopt are as follows, respectively [3], apn DT Vopt p 1 ZTm 1 Iopt V 9 10

Vopt apn DT =R p A R 1 ZTm 1 p  Th 1 ZT m Tc Tc p COPc;opt Th Tc 1 ZTm 1 where the arithmetical average temperature of the thermocouple is: 1 Tm Th Tc 2 K

11

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The gure of merit of thermocouple Z Z a2 ap an 2 pn KRmin KRmin 1=K 13

Z is a comprehensive parameter which describes the thermoelectric characteristics; its value relates only to the physical properties of thermocouple material. The greater the gure of merit Z , the better the thermoelectric material. Using the same approach as previously, the optimum coecient of performance of heating COPh;opt can be expressed as: p   Th 1 ZTm 1 COPh;opt 12 14 ZTm Th Tc For example 1, if Z 3 103 (1/K), Tc 290 K(17 C), Th 310 K(37 C), from Eq. (11), then COPc;opt  1:89, from Eq. (14), COPh;opt 2.47. However, under the same temperature condition, the COP of Carnot circulation COPc;carnot 14:5, COPh;carnot 15:5. The eciency of optimum thermoelectric cooling is COPc;opt /COPc;carnot 13%, COPh;opt /COPh;carnot 16%. Thermoelectric air-conditioners have many advantages, such as being completely CFC free, simplicity, being convenient to use, lightweight, high reliability, silent operation, fast start-up and easy control. Furthermore, their operating temperature range is very wide ()40 to 70 C) and they can be powered directly by a PV or fuel cell source. Their main drawbacks are low COPs and high capital cost.

3. Performance contrast On the basis of performance and cost, the vapour-compression type of air conditioner is the best. However, these units are not environmental friendly if conventional refrigerants are employed and future legislation will restrict their use. Absorption units employ low-level thermal energy and contribute to energy-saving but are bulky and expensive. Thermoelectric systems are simple and convenient but have low COPs and are also expensive. Table 1 presents a general contrast of the three types of air-conditioners. Table 2 shows specic data for the three types of air-conditioners. The compression-based split-system air-conditioner is familiar to us all. An absorptionbased, domestic gas air-conditioner, BCT16, has a large cooling/heating capacity of 16 kW but simultaneously a large volume and weight, as shown in Fig. 5. A typical thermoelectric air-cooled air-conditioner, MAA1200E-115 has a small cooling/heating capacity and simultaneously a small volume and is lightweight, as shown in Fig. 6. Its COP may be calculated from Fig. 7.

4. Economic analysis An economic analysis is a vital part of any comparison, and can strongly inuence nal choice. All appliances will have a limited life expectancy. Depreciation can be caused by wear and tear, technical or commercial obsolescence. Depreciation is commonly calculated by one of two

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Table 1 General contrast of the three types of domestic air-conditioners Type Cooling Cooling capacity, W Input electric power, W COPc Work permit temperature range, C Heating capacity, kW Input electric power, W COPh Work permit temperature range, C VCAC 25004500 7501670 2.63.0 1845 28 7502900 2.63.0 )5 to 18 3548 Indoor Medium 1012 Low AAC (single eect) 152 10 KW 1.854 KW 0.60.7b N/A 584.4 103 KW N/A 0.860.92b Any environmental temperature N/A Big 15 High
4

TEAC 15560a 361495 0.380.45c 070 N/A N/A N/A Any environmental temperature N/A Small 23 High

Heating

Noise, Db Size Life expectancy, years Price

a

Theoretically speaking, the cooling/heating capacity of a thermoelectric air-conditioner can be designed for an arbitrary range, but the current commercial products have only 15560 W of cooling capacities [68]. b For a double-eect LiBr absorption system, cooling COPs range from 0.9 to 1.2 [4]. For gas-red absorption airconditioner system, cooling COPs range from 1.02 to 1.21, heating COPs range from 0.86 to 0.92 [5]. c The calculations of cooling COPs depend on an 8 C temperature dierence of uid through the cold sink.

methods, i.e., the prime cost or the diminishing value (DV) method. The prime cost method allocates an equal amount of depreciation to each full accounting period over the eective life of the appliance. The DV method allocates a decreasing amount of depreciation in each full accounting period over the eective life of the asset. Accordingly, higher deductions are available in the early part of the assets life based on the rationale that an asset delivers better services in the earlier rather than later years of its life. Depreciation rates based on the DV method are 1.5 times that of the prime cost method. Air-conditioning systems are in frequent operation and need to be well maintained. The DV method is therefore more appropriate to the economic analysis of air conditioning systems. Annual depreciation is modelled to apply a DV method where the value of the air-conditioner (Vn ) after n years of operation is evaluated as: Vn Initial cost 1 DV factor
n

15

where n is the year of operation and the DV factor is dependent on the life expectancy of the airconditioner. With regard to the life expectancy of an air-conditioner, of 10, 15 and 20 years, the DV factor was chosen to be 15%, 10% and 7.5%, respectively. Operating costs include only power consumption, as maintenance costs are not considered in this paper. The electricity price was adopted from UK Npower (2003) to be 11.27 pence/unit, and gas price was assumed to be 2.28 pence/unit (one unit is 1 kW of electricity or gas used for 1 h, kW h). As: Annual operation cost Annual power consumption electricity price 16

S.B. Riat, G. Qiu / Applied Thermal Engineering 24 (2004) 19791993 Table 2 Data for the three types of domestic air-conditioners Type Cooling Cooling capacity, W Input electric power, W COPc Work permit temperature range, C Heating capacity, W Input electric power, W COPh Work permit temperature range, C VCAC Hitachi KFR-26 GWa 2600 880 2.95 1845 3000 1000 3.0 )5 to 18 39/49 815 298 194 (indoor) 820 520 220 (outdoor) AAC BCT16 2667 (one room)b 1000 1.01 650 4100 (one room)b 400 0.88 Any environmental temperature (23)35)/62 950 510 256 (indoor) 1818 1100 550 (outdoor) 1818 660 550 (outdoor) 22/420 15 424 ($667) (one room)

1989

TEAC MAA1200E-115 320 840 0.38c 670 1159 840 1.38 Any environmental Temperature 30 470 302 216

Heating

Noise (indoor/outdoor), Db Size (mm3 )

Weight (indoor/outdoor), kg Life expectancy, years Equipment cost,

a

8/33 11 318 ($500)

19.5 23 880 ($1385)

A vapour compression split-system air-conditioner is considered, a window-type air-conditioner has greater noise but lower cost. b Total cooling capacity 16 kW and heating capacity 16 kW for BCT16 [5], required natural gas 1.5 m3 /h for cooling and 1.8 m3 /h for heating. It is assumed to cool/heat 6 rooms. Natural gas combustion value is 8500 Kcal/m3 . c The determination of cooling COP depends on an 8 C temperature dierence of uid through the cold sink.

The annual total cost can be expressed as: Annual total cost Annual depreciation annual operation cost annual maintenance cost 17

For the convenience of comparison, several assumptions were made in calculating the costs as follows: (1) Salvage value is zero. (2) Life expectancy came from the manufacturers estimate. (3) Air-conditioner operated every year for 100 days cooling in summer and 100 days heating in winter, with 12 h operation per day. (4) For the absorption air-conditioner, take one room for comparison.

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Fig. 5. A typical absorption-based domestic gas air-conditioner.

Table 3 and Fig. 8 show that the VCAC system is the cheapest purchase option and TEAC is the most expensive, but the VCAC has the disadvantages of being non-environmental friendly if

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Fig. 6. A typical Melcor thermoelectric air-cooled air-conditioner.

Fig. 7. MAA1200E-115 performance curves.

CFCs or HCFCs are employed and also high consumption of electricity. Although the AAC system is expensive in terms of its equipment due to its bulk and complexity, it can operate mainly on low-level energy sources, such as gas, oil, or LNG, all of which are much cheaper than electricity. The TEAC system is expensive due to its low COP and production initialization, but it is completely environmental friendly, reliable and has a long operational life. 5. Conclusions (1) The cooling/heating capacity of a domestic VCAC is much lower than that of a domestic central AAC, but much more than that of TEAC. (2) AAC is a heat-operated cycle and consumes only a small amount of electricity to drive pumps and fans. VCAC and TEAC system, however, use a larger amount of electricity, so the operation cost of an AAC is lower than that of VCAC and TEAC.

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Table 3 Economic analysis of the three types of air-conditioners Comparative items VCAC Hitachi KFR-26 GW Cooling electric input (W) Cooling electric energy consumption (kW h)/year Heating electric input (W) Heating electric energy consumption (kW h)/year Total electric energy consumption every year (kW h) Total heat consumption every year Total energy consumption for 11 years (kW h) 880 1056 1000 1200 2256 No 24,816 AC types AAC BCT16 1000 1200 400 480 1680 3960 m3 gas, e.g., 39,083 kW ha 18,480 (electric) 429,913 kW h (gas)b 2083 + 891 2974 496 (one room)c 140d (one room)
3

TEAC MAA1200E-115 840 1008 840 1008 2016 No 22,176

Total operation costs () for 11 years Value of air-conditioner after 11 years of operation
a
3

2797 53

2499 373

Cooling: 1.5 12 100 1800 m /year, heating: 1.8 12 100 2160 m /year, total heat energy is (1800 + 2160) 8500 4.18/3600 39,083 kW h/year. Gas cost each year is 891. b The absorption air-conditioner expended electric energy and gas within 11 years. c Whole absorption air-conditioner expended electric cost 2083 and gas cost 891 within 11 years. On an average for one room, its cost is 496. d For one room, V11 445 1 0:1011 140 ().

3500
3000

Total operation cost for 11years Purchase price

2500

2499
2000

2797
1500

1000

496 318 VCAC 445

880

AAC

TEAC

Fig. 8. Comparison of purchase price and 11 years operation costs of the three air-conditioners.

(3) VCAC is the most ecient with an actual COP of 2.63.0. This is followed by AAC with a COP of 0.60.7 (single eect absorption) and TEAC with a COP of 0.380.45.

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(4) Indoor noise levels are approximately the same (except the window-type VCAC) because of sole indoor noise produced by fan or blower, but outdoor noises are dierent. The compressor of a VCAC or liquid pumps of an AAC are large noise sources, but TEAC has only fan or blower unless a water-cooled heat sink is used with a pump. (5) With regard to the sum of the purchasing and operating costs over a same period, AAC has the lowest cost and TEAC is the highest cost. (6) The three types of air-conditioning systems have their respective merits and disadvantages. Thermoelectric air-conditioners have been widely applied in low cooling capacity cases and have the advantage of being powered directly by DC electric sources, such as PV cells, fuel cells and car DC electric sources.

References
[1] P.K. Bansal, A. Martin, Comparative study of vapour compression, thermoelectric and absorption refrigerators, Int. J. Energy Res. 24 (2000) 93107. [2] M.W. Zemansky, R.H. Dittman, Heat and Thermodynamics, sixth ed., McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1981, pp. 431442. [3] D.M. Rowe, CRC Handbook of Thermoelectrics, CRC Press, Inc, London, 1995, p. 23. [4] C.B. Dorgan, S.P. Leight, C.E. Dorgan, Application Guide for Absorption Cooling/Refrigeration Using Recovered Heat, ASHRAE, Inc, 1995. [5] Available from <http://www.broad.com/index-eng.htm>. [6] Available from <http://www.melcor.com>. [7] Available from <http://www.electrogracs.com>. [8] Available from <http://www.thermoelectric.com>.