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Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Air handling unit with thermoelectric heating and cooling is offered for licensing

Country of Origin: Czech Republic
Reference Number: TOCZ20190424001
Publication Date: 25 April 2019

Summary

The Czech researchers have developed an air handling unit with thermoelectric heating and cooling. The unit includes the possibility of additional heating or cooling of the air, using the principle of a heat pump, where one or more thermo-electric modules based on the Peltier effect are used instead of a conventional compressor and expansion unit. The unit forms a separate local heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. The technology is offered on the basis of a license agreement.

Description

Modern energy efficient buildings require technology that makes it possible to use renewable energy efficiently while providing users with increased comfort and improved indoor environment quality. 

Central heat recovery units are now common in office and residential buildings. In some cases, these centralized systems are equipped with a heater or cooler. Smaller decentralized units are primarily designed for ventilation of individual rooms and the possibility of heating and/or cooling is missing.

The developed air-handling unit with increased waste heat removal significantly improves the overall efficiency of the ventilation unit with the possibility of heating and cooling.

The unit developed by the Czech researchers is designed for ventilation of a building interior and exterior and offers the possibility of heating and / or cooling of such building. The ventilation unit includes a passive module comprising of at least one passive thermal air heat exchanger. The ventilation unit also includes an active module comprising of at least one active thermal air exchanger. The passive and active modules have at least two inputs and two outputs.

The passive module comprises of two heat exchangers, a primary passive heat air exchanger and a secondary passive heat air exchanger. In the invented specific set-up, the secondary passive thermal air exchanger is able to obtain an extra portion of the waste heat in a heating mode, in contrast to the configuration where there is only one primary passive thermal air exchanger and thus increase the overall heat recovery efficiency.

The essence of the present invention is that the ventilation unit is additionally equipped with a second air duct for supplying additional air from the exterior, which at its first end is connected to the fresh air inlet and is connected to the second input of the active module at its other end.

In a preferred embodiment, the second exterior air duct is provided with a seasonal shutter for closing the duct in heating mode during the winter season and for opening it in cooling mode in the summer season.

Preferably, at least one indoor environmental quality sensor is located in the object, wherein at least one of the indoor environmental quality sensors is connected to the ventilation unit.

The installation of the presented ventilation unit does not require complicated construction work. Only two openings are needed, one for exhaust air outlet and the other for fresh air. Alternatively, these openings can be combined into a single or, alternatively, the openings can be placed in the window lining or under window sills.

The power supply of the unit can be advantageously combined with renewable sources, for example a photovoltaic system designed for either the ventilation unit alone or centrally installed anywhere in the building. The power of the units is then controlled according to the size of detected overflows to the distribution system.

The unit combines the forced air exchange function with the cooling and heating function of buildings. Changing the mode between cooling and heating is done simply by reversing the current in the thermoelectric modules and possibly by adjusting the flaps. The cascade of passive and active exchangers increases the heat recovery and cooling efficiency of the exhaust air. For heat recovery from exhaust air, a configuration with two or more passive heat air exchangers is most preferred.

In the configuration of the unit with water-air heat exchanger, the unit can be connected to the existing heating water distribution system and fully replace the radiators in the room using the existing building heating system.

The technology is offered on the basis of a license agreement. The subject of the licensing agreement will be a detailed design scheme of the ventilation unit, modelling software for designing turnkey solutions using the ventilation unit as well as know-how for manufacturing the ventilation units.

Advantages and Innovations

The air-handling unit can be used in all administrative and residential buildings. It can be easily integrated into existing buildings and new buildings. The unit can also be used for ventilation of school or other public buildings.



In particular, the ventilation unit can be used for building reconstructions where the installation of a central air handling unit is too expensive, complicated or, for other reasons, not feasible or disadvantageous.



Direct heat or cold production combined with forced air exchange is an ideal combination for smaller buildings where central system installation is not worthwhile, or older buildings where central system installation is not possible or the investment costs are too high.



The developed ventilation unit acts as a complete local HVAC (heating, ventilating, air-conditioning) system, which supplies fresh air indoors, and is also capable of controlling room temperature. The concept brings a unique advantage in the form of sound technology of cooling and heating connected with active air handling in a single product without a necessity of using mechanical compressor.



It brings additional benefits in terms of environment (no hazardous refrigerant) and simplified construction, reliability and noise levels reduction. Unlike standard local ventilation units, Peltier modules help to improve heat/cool recovery but can also be used to adjust air temperature of the supplied air.  



Given the recent intense development of Peltier modules, the technology has become affordable and efficient enough to be used for active air temperature control. Due to the absence of mechanical moving parts - the compressor mechanical circuit, the developed technology is more reliable than active compressor and expander units.



An advantage is the possibility of configuring the total unit power by the number of active heat exchangers, whereby the number of these exchangers reflects the need for fresh air.

Stage Of Development

Prototype available for demonstration

Requested partner

Type of partner:

- Industry



Field of activity of the partner sought: 

- The partner sought should have access to companies dealing with heating, ventilating, air-conditioning systems



- Task to be performed:

Research Centre is looking for a licensee that would be interested in exercising intellectual property rights and know-how of the disclosed unit, and in manufacturing, selling, renting or developing products produced using this IP and know-how.