• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.113-121
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• 2021

In this study, the thermal characteristics of cold and hot water mattress units equipped with thermoelectric modules were investigated via numerical analyses. Cold and hot water mattress products that are currently in existence use manual methods requiring refrigerants to be added to the hot water boiler. However, the cold and hot water mattress units using thermoelectric modules can provide improved efficiency via energy savings and actively resolving environmental pollution problems. To determine the efficiency of the thermoelectric module, the mattress was modeled and its efficiency was analyzed for the cooling and heating processes using two 100-W-class and one 200-W-class thermoelectric modules, respectively. From the results of this study, it was confirmed that when two 100-W-class modules were used, the application area was larger than when a single 200-W-class module was used, with uniform temperature distribution and improved performance compared to existing products in terms of electrical energy.