Sustainability, Vol. 12, Pages 1564: An IoT-Based Thermoelectric Air Management Framework for Smart Building Applications: A Case Study for Tropical Climate (Sustainability)

This study investigates the performance of the thermoelectric air conditioning (TE-AC) system smartly controlled by the Internet of Things (IoT)-based configuration for real tropical climatic application. Air cooling management was done through thermoelectric coolers, and an Arduino microcontroller with various sensors such as a temperature sensor, simple RF modules, and actuators was used to control the indoor climatic conditions based on outdoor conditions. The result shows that when the input power supply to the IoT-based TE-AC system is increased, the cooling capacity of the framework is also enhanced. Significant power and carbon emission reduction was observed for the IoT-based TE-AC system as compared to the TE-AC system without IoT. The IoT-incorporated system also ensures better microclimatic temperature control. Additionally, the system cooling capacity improves by 14.0%, and the coefficient of performance is increased by 46.3%. Thus, this study provides a smart solution to the two major energy harvesting issues of traditional air conditioners—an increase in energy efficiency by employing a TE-AC system and a further improvement in efficiency by using an IoT-based thermal management system.