Principle

When a direct current flows through a Peltier element, one side heats up and the other cools down. Because of this property, the principle of a heat pump can be explained with the help of the Peltier element: The warm side is not only heated by the electric current, but also by the cooling of the other side. Energy is "pumped" from the cold side to the warm side. In this experiment temperatures and electrical work are measured as a function of time. From this, the electrical energy and heat energies on both sides can be determined and the coefficient of performance and efficiency calculated.

Benefits

• Part of a system solution - easily expandable for further experiments
• Simple teaching by using the demo board physics
• Clear test execution by using ADM3 multimeters

Learning objectives

• Students learn how a thermocouple works.
• The students observe the conversion of electrical energy into thermal energy.