Patent ID: 8516832

Claim:
A controller for a thermoelectric cooling system of a vehicle comprising: a sensor input that receives input from a sensor that measures a performance parameter of a thermoelectric cooling system comprising a plurality of thermoelectric devices electrically coupled in parallel with one another, electrically driven by a common driver using DC power provided by a power supply that converts multiple-phase AC power from the vehicle to DC power, and thermally coupled in parallel with one another to cool a common space or object in the vehicle; a voltage control signal output; a processor; 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 comprising: determining whether multiple-phase AC power is available at the power supply, and when multiple-phase AC power is available: receiving sensor data from the sensor input; determining a parameter of a voltage control signal based on the input sensor data; and transmitting the voltage control signal having the parameter to the driver to control heat transfer by the plurality of thermoelectric devices.