Calculation of Efficiency of Thermoelectric Devices

A procedure has been developed for the exact calculation of the efficiency of thermoelectric generators and cooling devices in which the parameters of the materials have arbitrary temperature dependence. High speed computer techniques are found necessary. Approximate methods are reviewed and their discussion extended. A number of examples are worked out by both the exact and approximate methods. Comparison of these results show that the approximate methods agree with the exact method to about 5% in the case of power generation and to about 15% in the case of the refrigeration coefficient of performance. However, in the case of the maximum heat pumping rate deviations as large as a factor of 2 are found.