Heat pipe thermoelectric ice machine design: for water and energy saving

Abstract

In this study, a thermoelectric ice machine (TEIM) with a heat pipe was designed to save water and energy in ice making. Traditional ice machines have a long ice-making time. That is why they make ice and expend energy to maintain the ice form. Since the ice made is hand-harvested, it is likely to be contaminated. The proposed system saves energy by making ice fast when needed and saves water by making ice as needed. The ice machine was designed to freeze water in the icebox with direct thermal contact with the thermoelectric (TE) cooling unit. The cooling unit contains a TE module placed between the icebox and the heat-transfer system with a dual-fan heat pipe. Despite its low efficiency, the system has advantages such as compactness, portability, environmental friendliness and low maintenance requirements. The system turns 10 g of water into ice in 5 min by spending 0.025 kWh of power and harvests the ice automatically. It is possible to make 2880 g of ice per day using the TEIM. An important advantage of the system is that it harvests the ice automatically; therefore, it does not cause contamination.

Investigation of thermoelectric module of next generation ice machine with TEPAS

“…yazılımla donatılmış, otomatik buz yapan bir adet özel yapım elektronik kontrol sisteminden oluştuğu görülmektedir. Bu çalışmada cihazın sadece termoelektrik özellikleri değil aynı zamanda cihazda kullanılan ısı borulu ısı transfer sistemi ve DC güç kaynağı incelenmiştir[5][6][7]. Bu çalışmada termoelektrik modülün ve buz makinesinin termoelektrik özellikleri, yeni yöntem ve test cihazı olan TEPAS ile araştırıldı.…”