The Question of Thermoelectric Devices Electrical Resistance—A Practical Investigation From a Peltier Effect (Thermoelectric Cooler/Thermoelectric Heater) Perspective

ABSTRACT Thermoelectric devices (TEDs) intrinsic electrical resistance is fundamental to its operation. This internal electrical resistance value negatively affects a TED's performance when it is operated as a thermoelectric cooler (TEC), and positively affects a TED when operated as a thermoelectric heater (TEH). TEDs inherent electrical resistance value is temperature dependent, making it difficult to measure/know the exact value. As a result, it is hardly published/discussed in details in most technical/scholarly works. This study practically researched and present in detailed, TEDs electrical resistance from a Peltier effect (TEC/TEH) perspective. Sixteen identical TEDs were in turns operated as TECs (until maximum cooling) and TEHs (at 0, 5, and 10 min of operation) with 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 V direct current (DC) power supply. A total of 320 observations were made to practically and accurately determine the TEDs electrical resistance to be mostly between 3Ω and 4Ω and furthermore, a novel analytical framework based on power regression analysis was introduced as the study highlight, to validate it. It was employed to easily and accurately compute the ×16 TEDs electrical resistance mean at 12, 10, 8, 6 and 4 V to be respectively 3.43Ω, 3.38Ω, 3.34Ω, 3.33Ω and 3.34Ω; as well as their combined final mean to be 3.39Ω; with corresponding standard deviations of 0.227Ω, 0.211Ω, 0.213Ω, 0.222Ω, 0.248Ω; as well as 0.224Ω.