Control system for a food and beverage compartment thermoelectric cooling system

Abstract

A controller for a thermoelectric cooling system comprises a sensor input that receives input from a sensor that measures a performance parameter of a thermoelectric cooling system. The thermoelectric cooling system comprises a plurality of thermoelectric devices electrically coupled in a combination of in series and in parallel with one another and electrically driven by a common driver. The controller also comprises a voltage control signal output, a processor, and a non-transitory memory having stored thereon a program executable by the processor to perform a method of controlling the thermoelectric cooling system. The method comprises receiving sensor data from the sensor input, determining a parameter of the voltage control signal based on the input sensor data, and transmitting a voltage control signal having the parameter to the driver to control heat transfer by the plurality of thermoelectric devices. The voltage control signal may include a pulse width modulation signal having a pulse width modulation duty cycle, or a variable voltage control signal having a percentage of the maximum voltage of the variable voltage control signal.