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In general, heat pumps work most efficiently (that is, the heat output produced for a given energy input) when the difference between the heat source and the heat sink is small. When using a heat pump for space or water heating, therefore, the heat pump will be most efficient in mild conditions, and decline in efficiency on very cold days.
Cold-side heat removal with air: In air-cooled thermoelectric applications, such as when harvesting thermal energy from a motor vehicle's crankcase, the large amount of thermal energy that must be dissipated into ambient air presents a significant challenge. As a thermoelectric generator's cool side temperature rises, the device's differential ...
A typical Peltier heat pump involves multiple junctions in series, through which a current is driven. Some of the junctions lose heat due to the Peltier effect, while others gain heat. Thermoelectric heat pumps exploit this phenomenon, as do thermoelectric cooling devices found in refrigerators.
A heat pump is a mechanical system that transmits heat from one location (the "source") at a certain temperature to another location (the "sink" or "heat sink") at a higher temperature. [2] Thus a heat pump may be thought of as a "heater" if the objective is to warm the heat sink (as when warming the inside of a home on a cold day), or a ...
Thermoelectric cooling uses the Peltier effect to create a heat flux at the junction of two different types of materials. A Peltier cooler, heater, or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the device to the other, with consumption of electrical energy, depending on the direction of the current.
The coefficient of performance or COP (sometimes CP or CoP) of a heat pump, refrigerator or air conditioning system is a ratio of useful heating or cooling provided to work (energy) required. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Higher COPs equate to higher efficiency, lower energy (power) consumption and thus lower operating costs.
The role of a heat exchanger is to transfer heat between two mediums, so the performance of the heat exchanger is closely related to energy or thermal efficiency. [11] A counter flow heat exchanger is the most efficient type of heat exchanger in transferring heat energy from one circuit to the other [citation needed].
A reversible heat engine with a low efficiency delivers more heat (energy) to the hot reservoir for a given amount of work (energy) to this engine when it is being driven as a heat pump. All these mean that heat can transfer from cold to hot places without external work, and such a heat transfer is impossible by the second law of thermodynamics.