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Thermoelectric General Information

A thermoelectric module is a manufactured solid state device that can operate as a heat pump or as an electrical power generator.

Thermoelectric Generator  (TEG)  Seebeck Effect    (Typical Set-Up Print @ Bottom Of Page)

Heat Pump or thermoelectric cooler  (TEC)  Peltier Effect

The origin of thermoelectrics was first discovered in 1834 by a French watchmaker, Jean Peltier, that the passage of an electric current through the junction between two dissimilar conductors (metals) in a certain direction produces a cooling effect way below that of ambient. There is a heating effect, (above ambient), unrelated to resistance heating, when the current is passed in the opposite direction through the junction between the two dissimilar conductors (metals).

The dissimilar conductors (metals), (couples) are characterized by either positive (p-type) electrons or negative (n-type electrons) heavily doped to create an excess or a deficiency of electrons.

Peltier's experiments followed by thirteen years those of Thomas Seebeck, a German physicist, in which it was discovered that an electromotive force can be produced by heating a junction between two dissimiler conductors (metals), (couples)., and removing this heat thereby creating a temperature differance across the devise, generating electricity.

There are many types of metals utilized for these devises. The most common utilized are Bismuth -Telluride

The (p-type) and (n-type) pairs, (couples) are connected electrically in series by example of, in a 49 active couple array. These materials are vacuum hot pressed to make the thermoelements contained in a thermoelectric module.

The thermoelectric module combined with a hot side heat exchanger and a cold side heat rejection heat exchanger properly manufactured can provide years of un-iterrupted electrical power generation.