Thermoelectric cooler box using a mini pin fin as a heat removal unit: Effect of using radiator on coefficient of performance

An experimental study to investigate the effect of using a radiator on the thermoelectric cooler box performance was performed. This study was conducted due to the increased demand for portable cooler boxes and the low coefficient of performance (COP). The thermoelectric cooler box used a mini pin fin as the heat removal unit and the experimental set-up consisted of two treatments; (1) with a radiator, (2) without a radiator. The cooler box size was 408 mm x 32.6 mm x 53.8 mm. Two bottles containing water of 1500 g each were placed inside the cooler box. The experiments were run for about 14400 s. The results indicate that using the radiator can increase the COP of the thermoelectric cooler box by 100%. The average COPs were 0.37 with the radiator and 0.17 without the radiator. Therefore, using the radiator is recommended for a closed system water circuit cooling system.