Experimental Assessment of the Temperature Control System for a Thermoelectric Refrigeration Unit

This paper presents an experimental analysis of classical control strategies applied to a small size thermoelectric refrigerator. First, the current-voltage characteristic of the thermoelectric module, installed in a commercial refrigeration unit, is measured and analyzed. Then, different types of controllers are compared to improve the unit performance in case of energy supply provided by a stand-alone DC system. Especially in case of power supply from intermittent generation, the controller can help to exploit the thermal capacity of the refrigeration unit by slightly varying the internal temperature. Experimental tests validate the simulations.