Method for energy management of air-conditioning units

Abstract

A method for energy management of air-conditioning units in motor vehicles in which each of the air-conditioning units has a plurality of air-conditioning compressors prevents very heavy loading of an engine of a motor vehicle and prevents the engine from almost stalling when the air-conditioning compressors start up, as currently occurs during starting of the engine of the motor vehicle, after idling of the engine of the motor vehicle, and after an acceleration process in which the engine was in the full load mode. Each of the air-conditioning compressors is allocated a different priority, with the highest priority, for example, assigned to the air-conditioning compressor for a front vehicle region which is intended, inter alia, to prevent the front windscreen from misting up by removing moisture from the air. A lower priority can be assigned to the air-conditioning compressor for a rear vehicle region. If one of the states specified above is detected during determination of a state, each of the air-conditioning compressors is switched on but successively delayed by a predetermined switch-on delay time in accordance with this allocated priority in response to request signals. In contrast, deactivation can take place simultaneously.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.