Thermal comfort study of a building equipped with thermoelectric air duct system for tropical climate

• Main Authors: Irshad, K., Habib, K., Basrawi, F., Thirumalaiswamy, N., Saidur, R., Saha, B.B.
• Format: Article
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2015
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84944049911&doi=10.1016%2fj.applthermaleng.2015.08.077&partnerID=40&md5=d101d9400695d4d79fcda6b7e763f3fc; http://eprints.utp.edu.my/25933/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

This paper examined the performance of a thermo-electric air duct system (TE-AD), which employs the thermo-electric module (TEMs) inside an air duct for providing thermal comfort in Malaysian environment. Twenty human subjects were exposed to test room equipped with TE-AD system operating at six different input current supply from 2 A to 7 A. Both objective and subjective measurements were carried out. Results show that with the increment of input current supply to the TE-AD system, subject's thermal response related to indoor condition of test room shifted from warm to neutral. Optimum performance of the TE-AD system was obtained at the input current supply of 6 A, more than 80 of subjects responded in the range of ±1 and meets ASHARE standards of acceptability criteria. Further increase in input current supply deteriorates the cooling performance of the TE-AD system. Economic comparison of the TE-AD system with the existing air conditioning system shows that economic saving of US 127.34/year can be achieved with additional benefits of Freon free, convenient installation, no moving part and reliable operation. © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.