Experimental Evaluation and Thermodynamic System Modeling of Thermoelectric Heat Pump Clothes Dryer

Electric clothes dryers in the US consume about 6% of residential electricity consumption. Available electric clothes dryers today are either based on electric resistance (low-cost but energy-inefficient) or vapor compression (energy-efficient but high-cost). Thermoelectric dryers have the potential to alleviate the disadvantages of both through a low-cost, energy-efficient solution. This paper presents experimental results and steady state simulation of a prototype thermoelectric dryer. A thermoelectric model is coupled with a psychrometric dryer system model to design the experimental prototype. The results from the prototype are used to calibrate the model and identify important parameters that affect performance, such as relative humidity of air leaving the drum.