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Self-driven thermoelectric cooler-thermoelectric generator (TEC-TEG) systems have recently attracted a great deal of attention. The single-stage and two-stage TEC-TEG systems have been developed and extensively studied. However, a serial electric current configuration between the TEC and TEG leads to a low cooling capacity or/and a small temperature drop across the TEC, and hence seriously restricts applications of TEG-TEC systems. In this work, a new design of combined TEC-TEG systems is proposed, where two single-stage TEGs are employed to separately power the hot stage and cold stage of the TEC. The advantage of the new design lies in the separate electric current configuration. A three-dimensional thermoelectric model is developed to compare the performance of the new and original designs for various thermocouple number ratios and operating conditions. The comparison demonstrates that …