Prototype Thermoelectric Climate System for its Use in Residential Buildings

Abstract

The School of Architecture of the University of Navarra has begun a project which consists in constructing a prefabricated module, consisting of a simplified inhabited housing unit, and monitoring over the course of one year the behavior of a thermoelectric installation that provides service to this module. The principal objective of the project is to quantify the response capacity of a thermoelectric climate control system applied to a prototype, and evaluate its energy and economic costs in the case that the system were applied in an apartment building. The development of this project represents the application in the field of construction of a technology that already is in use in other areas, fundamentally the military and aerospace. Therefore, we do not seek to demonstrate the performance of Peltier cells per se, but rather to evaluate how they function when applied to the residential area, and to analyze both the positive and negative aspects of their use. In this regard, it must not be forgotten that Spanish regulations also require the evaluation of the maintenance needs of climate control equipment, and, in this regard, Peltier cells offer an important advantage: Despite the fact that the initial investment is greater than with a conventional method of climate control, the maintenance costs are nearly zero. For these reasons, an objective of the project is to estimate the construction and amortization costs of the application of this technology in the residential area.