Performance Study on Thermoelectric Voltage Generation Using Infrared Light Source

Abstract

Thermoelectric (TE) module is energy harvester that transfer heat to electrical energy. However, it can be complemented with photovoltaic (PV) cell by using sunlight as source and convert into electrical energy. This is due to the fact that the spectrum of sunlight from ultraviolet (UV) to infrared (IR) is not fully utilized, whereby at the IR light spectrum PV cell does not perform at its optimum in conversion into electrical energy. However, IR spectrum produces heat, which is good for TE module. In this paper, the experiment will carry out in the lab. IR light bulb is used to simulate the IR spectrum from sunlight. Besides, a convex lens is used to focus the light beam from IR light. Therefore, the light is focused and can obtain higher temperature. When the temperature is increased, the voltage output of the TE module will also be increased. In the experiment, two different covers are put on the top of TE module which is aluminium sheet and heat sink. The performance study of TE module is focused on open circuit voltage output of the module. The comparison is also made to investigate the voltage output of TE module with cover and without cover and it is found out that a voltage of 0.35V can be achieved at a temperature difference of only 12 C when using a heat sink to spread the heating source uniformly on the TE module.