Solar assisted thermoelectric cooling/heating system for vehicle cabin during parking: A numerical study

Vehicles parked under blazing sun increases the cabin temperature to a broiling point as greenhouse effect comes into play. Similar is found in winter season when vehicle is parked in open, cabin temperature falls drastically. This extreme rise and fall in the vehicle cabin temperature, results in more fossil fuel consumption to power air-conditioner for high loads, which eventually leads to increase in generation of harmful gases. Additionally, the drastic condition inside vehicle cabin makes it profusely miserable for human comfort. Thus, relevant renewable energy powered cooling/heating system is required for the vehicle cabin when parked in open areas. Therefore, in this study initially, a 3D heat and mass transfer model is developed for evaluating temperature variations in vehicle cabin for summer and winter seasons. Then, a solar powered thermoelectric cooling-heating system is proposed to resolve the extreme rise and fall of vehicle cabin temperature without running the engine or using any power from the primary source. And, the thermal performance of the proposed system is evaluated and assessed in the numerical study. The proposed system was able to reduce the average temperature of the cabin space by 17 °C in summer season and the average temperature rise of the cabin space is found by 15 °C in winter season. The solar simulator for the vehicle rooftop solar panel investigated annual averages of normalized energy per day and loss in solar energy collection due to variation in tilt angle, which was around 20%. Thus, the present study demonstrates the feasibility of proposed novel solar assisted thermoelectric cooling/heating system in both summer and winter seasons. Hence, study demonstrates that the thermoelectric technology with solar assistance is effective and viable for cooling and heating of vehicle cabin during parking.