Performance study of building cooling system composed of photovoltaic panels, phase change material, and thermoelectric cooler: impact of its orientation.

This paper presents an implementation of a cooling system within a room wall, combining a photovoltaic panel outside the wall, two layers of phase change material embedded in the wall, and a thermoelectric cooling (TEC) system inside the wall. The objective of this work is to substitute the conventional air conditioning system with an environmentally friendly one powered only by solar energy. In addition, A comparison is made between using the PV panel, PV with PCM, and the proposed cooling system. The phase change materials layers are employed; one is to absorb the heat from the thermo-electric system to enhance the cooling performance, and the other is to cool the photovoltaic (PV) panel. A detailed mathematical model of the systems is created, solved using numerical methods, and then validated. The overall system, including PV, PCM, and TEC, substitutes one wall or the roof, so the investigation is conducted to assess the performance of the TEC cooling system when the overall system replaces the west, east, north, and south walls, as well as the roof. The results of this study indicate that the most effective performance of the TEC cooling system is obtained when it is installed on the roof, with a maximum PV power output of 857 W, indoor temperature reduction of 17.5 °C, and maximum system COP of 6. The lowest obtained indoor temperature is 19.8 for the east wall system, while this value is 20.42 and 26.7 °C in the case of roof and west cooling systems, respectively. The minimum coefficient of performance of the cooling system is 2, 1.9, and 4.34 for the east, roof, and west systems. This studied cooling system proves its ability to be competitive with conventional air conditioning systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]