37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 942PROTOTYPE THERMOELECTRIC CLIMATE SYSTEM FORITS USE IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGSCésar Martín Gómez a , María Eguaras a , Natalia Mambrilla a , Joaquín Torres a , Juan CarlosRamos b , and Alejandro Rivas ba Department of Construction Science – Installations and EnergyUniversidad de Navarrae-mail: instetsaun@unav.esb Department of Mech. Engineering, Thermal and Fluids Engineering DivTECNUN (Universidad de Navarra)e-mail: jcramos@tecnun.es / arivas@tecnun.esKey words: Architecture, HVAC, thermoeletric, residential, efficiency.AbstractThe School of Architecture of the University of Navarra has begun a project which consists inconstructing a prefabricated module, consisting of a simplified inhabited housing unit, andmonitoring over the course of one year the behavior of a thermoelectric installation thatprovides service to this module.The principal objective of the project is to quantify the response capacity of a thermoelectricclimate control system applied to a prototype, and evaluate its energy and economic costs inthe case that the system were applied in an apartment building.The development of this project represents the application in the field of construction of atechnology that already is in use in other areas, fundamentally the military and aerospace.Therefore, we do not seek to demonstrate the performance of Peltier cells per se, but rather toevaluate how they function when applied to the residential area, and to analyze both thepositive and negative aspects of their use.In this regard, it must not be forgotten that Spanish regulations also require the evaluation ofthe maintenance needs of climate control equipment, and, in this regard, Peltier cells offer animportant advantage: Despite the fact that the initial investment is greater than with aconventional method of climate control, the maintenance costs are nearly zero.For these reasons, an objective of the project is to estimate the construction and amortizationcosts of the application of this technology in the residential area.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 315