DESIGN OF SOLID STATE-BASED THERMOELECTRIC DEVICE FOR COOLING AND HEATING DRINKS IN A CAR

The purpose of this project is to design a solid state based thermoelectric
device for cooling and heating drinks in a car. The system will basically be able to
cool down or heat up to a certain temperature by connecting the circuit to cigarette
lighter as a power supply in a car. The scopes of study of this project are basically
focused on three fields which are the Peltier device, the thermoelectric applications
and the control circuit. A control circuit has been design for the purpose of cooling
and heating as well as maintaining at certain desired temperature. The circuit consists
of H-bridge circuit, PIC 16F877 microcontroller and temperature sensor. A prototype
which is called cooler/heater made of Peltier module, heat sink and cooling fan has
been constructed. A container which is made of material that has low thermal
conductivity and properly sealed is chosen and modified to keep the temperature
inside cold or hot. The project is able to cool down to 7°C and heat up to 65°C and
maintain at that temperature for use in a car. The Peltier module surface took about
5.56 seconds to heat up to the expected temperature at 65°C and took 20.53 seconds
to cool down to expected cooling temperature at 7°C. The air temperature inside the
360 ml container took about 60 minutes to heat up to the expected temperature at
65°C and 220 minutes to cool down to expected cooling temperature at 7°C.