US 12,228,314 B1
Cascading thermoelectric heat pump
Kevin Woods, Downingtown, PA (US)
Assigned to The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Arlington, VA (US)
Filed by The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Arlington, VA (US)
Filed on Apr. 30, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/661,551.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/264,683, filed on Nov. 30, 2021.
Int. Cl. F25B 30/02 (2006.01); F25B 21/02 (2006.01)
CPC F25B 30/02 (2013.01) [F25B 21/02 (2013.01); F25B 2321/023 (2013.01); F25B 2321/0252 (2013.01)] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A cascading thermoelectric heat pump comprising
a stack of at least four thermally conductive cold plates, each cold plate in the stack being alternatingly a cool cold plate or a hot cold plate, the cold plates having at least two channels and at least one tube for carrying fluid looping through the channels, the tube having an inflow end and an outflow end;
a plurality of electrically connected thermoelectric coolers situate between each respective pair of cold plates;
an inflowing cool conduit connected to the inflow ends of the tubes of the cool cold plates and an outflowing cool conduit connected to the outflow ends of the tubes in the cool cold plates;
an inflowing hot conduit connected to the inflow ends of the tubes in the hot cold plates and an outflowing hot conduit connected to the outflow ends of the tubes in the hot cold plates;
wherein each of the cold plates has an upper side with an upper channel and a lower side with a lower channel; and
the tube enters the cold plate through the upper channel in the upper side, loops around to return anti-parallel in the lower channel in the lower side, whence it exits the cold plate; and
wherein, when electricity is supplied to the thermoelectric coolers, a cool supply stream of fluid supplied to the inflowing cool conduit is cooled by passage through the stack of cold plates, and a hot supply stream of fluid supplied to the inflowing hot conduit is heated by passage through the stack of cold plates.