The main objective of this study is to present an integrated thermoelectric–photovoltaic renewable system to dehumidify air and produce fresh water. The system is combined with a solar distiller humidifying ambient air to enhance distillate output to meet the specified fresh water needs for a residential application. A model is developed to simulate the air dehumidification process using thermoelectrically cooled TEC channels. Experiments were performed to validate the developed model results. It is found that the model predicted well the variation in the air temperature along the channel with a maximum relative error in air temperature less than 2.4%. In addition, the simulation model predicted well the amount of water condensate produced by the integrated system with a maximum relative error of 8.3%. An optimization problem is formulated to design and set the integrated system optimal operation to produce 10 L of fresh water per day meeting the fresh water needs of a typical residential. Using five TEC channels of a length of 1.2 m and an area of 0.07 × .05 m² integrated with 1.2-m² solar distiller that recirculates a constant air mass flow rate of 0.15 kg s⁻¹ is capable of meeting water demand when air mass flow rate through each TEC channel is optimally set at 0.0155 kg s⁻¹. The associated optimal electrical current input to the TEC modules varied depending on the month and is set at 2.2 A in June, 2.1 A in July and 2.0 A in August, September and October. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.