Vehicle climate control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10166841-B2
Application number	US-201615259809-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 8, 2016
Priority date	Sep 9, 2015
Publication date	Jan 1, 2019
Grant date	Jan 1, 2019

Abstract

A vehicle climate control system has a control strategy which controls temperature of an evaporator in a refrigeration circuit to achieve a target temperature/relative humidity within a comfort zone which is defined by upper and lower temperature boundaries and upper and lower relative humidity boundaries. Several system embodiments are disclosed, including an all-electric system. All systems operate with improved efficiency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A land vehicle comprising:
a powertrain comprising a motor for propelling the vehicle on land;
an occupant compartment for at least one occupant;
a climate control system for conditioning inside air within the occupant compartment, the climate control system having an air handler comprising a primary airway having an entrance, a blower fan for drawing air into the entrance and moving air through the primary airway and into the occupant compartment, a cooler for removing thermal energy from air moving through the primary airway, a heater for adding thermal energy to air moving through the primary airway, a first temperature sensor and a relative humidity sensor disposed to measure temperature and relative humidity of inside air, and a second temperature sensor for measuring surface temperature of the cooler; and
a controller for 1) calculating the dew point temperature of air from temperature measured by the first temperature sensor and relative humidity measured by the relative humidity sensor, 2) using the calculated dew point temperature to control surface temperature of the cooler to a controlled temperature, and 3) controlling temperature and relative humidity of inside air to achieve temperature and relative humidity within an area of a comfort zone, the comfort zone being bounded by a high temperature boundary, a low temperature boundary, a high relative humidity boundary, and a low relative humidity boundary, in which the first temperature sensor and the relative humidity sensor are disposed at an entrance of the primary airway, and the air handler comprises a damper upstream of the first temperature sensor and the relative humidity sensor for selecting air which flows into the entrance of the primary airway from one or both inside air and outside air which is outside the occupant compartment, the air handler also comprises a secondary airway in parallel with the primary airway, the secondary airway having an entrance through which inside air enters the secondary airway and is drawn through the secondary airway by the blower fan, a damper for controlling flow of inside air through the secondary airway, and an air distributor through which inside air which has passed through primary airway and inside air which has passed through secondary airway are introduced into the occupant compartment, the controller uses the calculated dew point temperature to control surface temperature of the cooler to a controlled temperature which is less than the calculated dew point temperature such that the magnitude of the difference between the calculated dew point temperature and temperature measured by the second temperature sensor is not greater than a defined temperature difference, and in which the controller is operable to cause the damper which controls flow of inside air through the secondary airway to block flow of inside air through the secondary airway until air entering the primary airway has one of temperature and relative humidity within the area of the comfort zone and then when the primary airway has one of temperature and relative humidity within the area, to cause the damper which controls flow of inside air through the secondary airway to allow at least some flow through the secondary airway.

2. The land vehicle set forth in claim 1 including an energy recovery and storage system for recovering what would otherwise be waste energy recovered during certain modes of vehicle operation and storing recovered energy as electric charge in a charge storage device.

3. The land vehicle set forth in claim 2 in which the energy recovery and storage system comprises a motor-generator which is selectively operable as a generator to charge the charge storage device when recovering what would otherwise be waste energy and as a motor operated by electricity from the charge storage device to deliver torque to the engine when excess energy is available from the charge storage device.

4. The land vehicle set forth in claim 3 in which the vehicle comprises a cruise control system, and the energy recovery and storage system is selectively operable by the controller as a generator to charge the charge storage device when the cruise control system discloses a positive error signal.

5. The land vehicle set forth in claim 3 in which the vehicle comprises a GPS system, and the energy recovery and storage system is selectively operable by the controller as a generator to charge the charge storage device when the vehicle is traveling along a road which the GPS system has disclosed to be favorable for energy recovery.

6. The land vehicle set forth in claim 1 in which the cooler comprises an evaporator of a refrigeration system having a compressor which is operable to circulate refrigerant in the refrigeration system, and further including an electric motor which operates the compressor.

7. The land vehicle set forth in claim 6 in which the heater comprises an electric heater.

8. The land vehicle set forth in claim 7 further comprising an outside air temperature sensor for measuring temperature of air which is outside the occupant compartment and an outside air relative humidity sensor for measuring relative humidity of air which is outside the occupant compartment, and in which the controller uses temperature and relative humidity of outside air in controlling temperature and relative humidity of inside air.

9. The land vehicle set forth in claim 1 further comprising a wireless control device for wirelessly communicating with the controller to set certain parameters of operation for the climate control system.

10. The land vehicle set forth in claim 9 in which the parameters of operation which the wireless control device can set include at least one of a target temperature, a target relative humidity, and a target zone of the occupant compartment.

11. The land vehicle set forth in claim 1 further comprising a high-voltage energy storage device and a low-voltage energy storage device and in which an electric motor operates the compressor at high-voltage and the controller operates at low-voltage.

12. The land vehicle set forth in claim 11 further comprising a solar array which is disposed to capture incident solar energy and convert captured solar energy into electricity which is stored in the high-voltage energy storage device.

13. The land vehicle set forth in claim 1 in which the controller comprises a control strategy for selecting a particular one of different cooler control strategies for controlling surface temperature of the cooler to a controlled temperature.

14. The land vehicle set forth in claim 13 in which the different cooler control strategies are each based on a different temperature/humidity condition of air outside the occupant compartment.

15. The land vehicle set forth in claim 13 in which the control strategy includes a ventilation strategy for ventilating the occupant compartment without operating the cooler.

Assignees

• Int Truck Ip Co Llc

Inventors

• Larson Gerald L
• Opperman Dean A

Classifications

• B60H2001/3245

  of air · CPC title

• B60H1/3208 Primary

  Vehicle drive related control of the compressor drive means, e.g. for fuel saving purposes · CPC title

• B60H1/00785

  by the detection of humidity or frost · CPC title

• B60H1/00807

  the input being a specific way of measuring or calculating an air or coolant temperature · CPC title

• B60H1/3207

  for minimizing the humidity of the air · CPC title