Maximizing cooling/heating performance of thermoelectric modules across variable thermal loads via optimal control based on COP curves.

The thermoelectric module has high potential as a compact electrothermal actuator in the generation of cooling/heating effects without any moving part. However, one difficulty of the design is that the fundamental principles of optimal cooling/heating performance of thermoelectric modules are not yet fully understood and implemented. The purpose of this paper is to propose a mathematical optimization to gain insight and implement the most effective usages.