Abstract:
Technological developments as well as population growth led to an increase in electricity
sources. The dependence on a large percentage of electric energy sources will cause a future
electricity crisis, thermoelectric generator (TEG) is the right alternative energy development
tool as a converter of wasted heat energy into electrical energy. However, recent research has
focused on developing high efficiency that requires high temperatures. Application at high
temperatures can affect the value to effectiveness (efficiency) caused by heat penetration. This
paper will show the characterization of the performance of the TEG element type 10W-4V-
40s at low temperature differences, where the low temperature is the cold side of the TEG
element at room temperature which is easy to create. The selection of this low temperature
aims to reduce the effect of heat penetration. Characterization was carried out against two
elements of TEG with the aim of comparing output voltage, power, internal resistance and
efficiency of TEG elements. Measurements on a single element of TEG taking into account
the absence of heat penetration are able to increase the output voltage, then the results showed
internal resistance to TEG of 1.2 Ω more stable, with a figure-of-merit value of 0.73 and
efficiency of 0.87%. Moreover, two TEGs connected in series can increase the output voltage
by converting efficiency by 1.4%, while the parallel circuit can increase the output current by
only 1.25%.
