How does a TEC (thermoelectric cooler) work? What does its parameter mean (Th, Q, or Delta T)?
A TEC (Thermoelectric cooler) is an application that harnesses thermoelectricity, more specifically, the Peltier effect. This is basically turning an electrical voltage input into a temperature difference. This is the converse of the Seebeck coefficient, which is turning a temperature difference into a voltage potential (used in Thermoelectric Generators). As for parameters for thermoelectrics in general, parameters would just be used to determine certain statistics for a specific scenario given. These would not only be used in calculating things like figure of merit (efficiency of the thermoelectric application, aka ΔZ), but also how effective your TEC would be. You asked about ΔT, Q, and Th. ΔΤ is the difference in temperature (i.e. your hot side is 200F, and your cold side is 20F, so 180 is your temp. difference). Q in this case could refer to either the charge/voltage of the application or some kind of heat factor. It would depend on your case to see what it would exactly mean. ...