Thermal Comfort Study of a Building Equipped with Thermoelectric Air Duct System for Tropical Climate

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 dif...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kashif, Irshad, Khairul, Habib, F., Basrawi, Nagarajan, Thirumalaiswamy, R., Saidur, Bidyut, Baran Saha
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier Ltd 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/6254/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/6254/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/6254/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/6254/1/Thermal%20Comfort%20Study%20of%20a%20Building%20Equipped%20with%20Thermoelectric%20Air%20Duct%20System%20for%20Tropical%20Climate.pdf
Description
Summary: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.