A novel water heater integrating thermoelectric heat pump with separating thermosiphon

Experiments verified that a thermoelectric heat pump system is more efficient than an electrical heating device, for its heating coefficient reached more than 1.6 with suitable operating conditions. On the base of experimental data, a novel instantaneous water heater was developed by means of integrating thermoelectric (TE) heat pump with separating thermosiphon. The original flow path of the prototype facilitated heat recovering from drainage, and remarkably reduced the temperature difference between heat sink and source of the TE heat pump, thus its performance is improved greatly. Performance tests illustrated that the prototype can save more than 38% of the power consumption compared with that of conventional electric water heaters. It is of great practical interest in building energy saving, supplying hot water for carriages, ships and other analogous movable spaces. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.