Vehicle air conditioner with heating capacity control of cooling water circuit
AssigneeDenso Corporation
InventorsKen Matsunaga, Masaya Tanaka, Hisashi Ieda
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a vehicle air conditioner where air blown into a passenger compartment is heated in a heater core using cooling water for cooling a fuel cell system as a heating source, a flow amount of cooling water flowing into the heat core is controlled by a control valve based on a surplus heat quantity of the fuel cell system and a necessary heat quantity of the passenger compartment. Further, when the surplus heat quantity of the fuel cell system is smaller than the necessary heat quantity, an insufficient heat quantity is supplemented by a supplementary heater.
Claims20
An air conditioner for a vehicle having a passenger compartment and an equipment that needs a temperature control, the air conditioner comprising:
- a cooling water circuit in which cooling water for cooling the equipment circulates;
- a heating heat exchanger, disposed in the cooling water circuit, for heating air to be blown into the passenger compartment using cooling water as a heating source;
- a supplementary heater for heating air, which supplements a heat quantity relative to the heating heat exchanger;
- heat quantity calculating means for calculating a necessary heat quantity necessary for a heating of air blown into the passenger compartment, based on a target air temperature;
- a flow control unit which controls a flow of cooling water in the cooling water circuit in such a manner that:
- cooling water from the equipment flows into the heating heat exchanger after temperature of the equipment increases to a predetermined temperature, and the flow of cooling water from the equipment to the heating heat exchanger is interrupted until the temperature of the equipment increases to the predetermined temperature;
- and
- heater control means for controlling a heat quantity generated by the supplementary heater when a heat quantity for heating air in the heating heat exchanger is smaller than the necessary heat quantity calculated by the heat quantity calculating means after the temperature of the equipment increases to the predetermined temperature.
An air conditioner for a vehicle having a passenger compartment, and an equipment that operates normally in a predetermined temperature range, the air conditioner comprising:
- a cooling water circuit in which cooling water for cooling the equipment circulates;
- a heating heat exchanger, disposed in the cooling water circuit, for heating air to be blown into the passenger compartment using cooling water as a heating source;
- a supplementary heater for heating air, which supplements a heat quantity relative to the heating heat exchanger;
- heat quantity calculating means for calculating a necessary heat quantity necessary for a heating of air blown into the passenger compartment, based on a target air temperature;
- a flow control unit which controls a flow of cooling water in the cooling water circuit in such a manner that:
- cooling water from the equipment flows into the heating heat exchanger when equipment is in the predetermined temperature range, and the flow of cooling water from the equipment to the heating heat exchanger is interrupted until the temperature of the equipment increases to a lower limit value of the predetermined temperature range;
- and
- heater control means for controlling a heat quantity generated by the supplementary heater when a heat quantity for heating air in the heating heat exchanger is smaller than the necessary heat quantity calculated by the heating quantity calculating means when equipment is in the predetermined temperature range.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.