JPH0591922U - Air conditioner for electric vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To effectively utilize the battery capacity of electric vehicles,
(EN) Provided is an air conditioner for an electric vehicle, which is capable of appropriately securing a travelable distance and improving an interior environment of a vehicle by appropriately balancing them. [Structure] A cooler switch 7 is provided at an appropriate position on an instrument panel and is connected to a control unit 4. The control unit 4 controls the operation of the cooler device 2 when the cooler switch 7 is ON, and controls the operation of the heater device 3 when the cooler switch 7 is OFF. Therefore, the cooler device 2 and the heater device 3 are not simultaneously operated to waste electric power, and it is possible to effectively utilize the battery capacity to secure a travelable distance and improve the vehicle interior environment.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention relates to an air conditioner for an electric vehicle that cools and heats a vehicle compartment by using electric energy of a battery mounted on the vehicle.

[0002]

[Prior Art]

 In recent years, automobiles that use an internal combustion engine as a drive source use part of their output to perform air conditioning in the vehicle interior to improve the environment inside the vehicle interior.

However, an electric vehicle that travels by changing the electric energy of a battery mounted on a vehicle into a driving force by a motor is in a stage where the traveling distance per one charge and the traveling performance are important because of battery performance. The current situation is that there is no room to consider an automobile like an automobile driven by an internal combustion engine to improve the environment. Therefore, a conventional electric vehicle is generally equipped only with a heater device mainly for use as a defroster device, and is not yet equipped with a cooler device.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 By the way, in order to widely disseminate electric vehicles in the future, it is necessary to improve not only the driving performance but also the performance in all aspects such as the vehicle interior environment as much as an internal combustion engine vehicle.

However, with the current battery performance, the number of batteries mounted on the battery must be increased in order to improve the mileage and power performance per charge, and the increase in vehicle weight due to this is not preferable for the running performance. Absent. In such a situation, when an electric vehicle is equipped with a heater device or a cooler device, an in-vehicle battery is used as a drive source for both devices, and a worker who effectively uses a limited battery capacity is required. You will need it. By the way, if an electric vehicle that consumes about 4 kW of power when traveling at 40 km / H is equipped with a heater device and a cooler device, the power consumption is expected to exceed 1 kW. Therefore, if the two devices are used at the same time, the power consumption will be doubled, and the electric vehicle's mileage (per charge) will be halved.

[0006] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to effectively utilize a limited battery procedure, and to appropriately balance the securement of a travelable distance and the improvement of the vehicle interior environment with an electric vehicle air conditioner. To provide a device.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and is provided in an electric vehicle that runs on the electric energy of a battery mounted on a vehicle, and the electric energy is used in an air conditioner for an electric vehicle that cools and heats a passenger compartment by using the electric energy. An electric heater device that heats the interior of the vehicle to heat the interior of the vehicle, a cooler device that cools the vehicle interior with a refrigerant supplied by an electric compressor, a cooler switch that selects the operation of the cooler device, and the heater device. And a control unit for controlling the operation of the cooler device, and when the operation of the cooler device is selected by the cooler switch, the operation of the heater device is stopped so that both are not operated simultaneously. It is a characteristic air conditioner for electric vehicles.

[0008]

[Action]

 According to the above-mentioned means, when the operation of the cooler device is selected by turning on the cooler switch, the heater device always stops its operation. Therefore, the cooler device and the heater device are not operated at the same time, and either device is selectively operated as needed, improving the vehicle interior environment of the electric vehicle without consuming a large amount of power. be able to. Also, since both devices can be prevented from operating at the same time due to an erroneous operation, a limited battery capacity is not wasted and the travelable distance is not reduced.

[0009]

【Example】

 An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

In the block diagram of FIG. 1, 1 is a blower fan, 2 is a cooler device (evaporator), 3 is a heater device, and the inside or outside air sucked by a blower fan 1 driven by a motor 1a is The duct structure is such that it passes through the cooler device 2 and the heater device 3 and blows out into the vehicle interior. The operation of this air conditioner is controlled by a control unit 4. The control unit includes a temperature setting lever 5, a blower fan switch 6 and a cooler switch 7 arranged at appropriate places on the instrument panel, and a cooler device 2 as well. An evaporator blow-out temperature sensor 8 arranged near the outlet of the heater, a pair of heater blow-out temperature sensors 9 and a temperature fuse 10 arranged at proper positions of the outlet of the heater device 3 are connected. Further, the power supplied to the control unit 4 of the present embodiment is two systems of DC240V obtained by connecting a plurality of batteries in series and an ignition (IG) line of DC12V obtained by transforming the DC240V. .. Reference numeral 11 is an inside / outside air switching damper, 12 is a temperature control damper, and 13 and 14 are blowout port switching dampers.

FIG. 2 is a schematic wiring diagram of the air conditioner shown in FIG. 1, in which the resistance value that changes according to the setting position of the temperature setting lever 5 is input to the control unit 4 via the A / D converter 15. The operation of the heater device 3 is controlled by this signal. The heater device 3 of the present embodiment uses three PTC heaters (so-called ceramic heaters) having a self-temperature control function (3a, 3b, 3c) instead of a water temperature type heater core used in an internal combustion engine vehicle. Through the switch circuit 16, three-stage current control described later is possible. The heater outlet temperature sensor 9 regulates the upper limit of the heater outlet temperature. For example, two temperature-sensitive reed switches (normally closed type) are connected in series so that the heater outlet temperature sensor 9 is placed on the heater outlet wall surface exposed to warm air. With the provision, it is possible to stop energization to the heater device 3 when a high temperature above a predetermined value is detected. Further, the temperature fuse 10 is connected in series with the heater device 3, and melts when the temperature inside the heater unit rises abnormally and directly interrupts the current flowing to the heater to prevent a fire. .. The location where the thermal fuse 10 is installed is preferably at the wall surface at the intermediate position between the pair of heater blow-out temperature sensors 9. In this case, if the heater blow-out temperature sensor 9 is set to 100 ° C., the temperature fuse 10 is set to 120 It becomes about ℃.

On the other hand, in the cooler device 3, the refrigerant supplied from the electric compressor (not shown) driven by the electric motor 2 a to the evaporator exchanges heat with the outside air or the inside air, and is controlled by the cooler ON / OFF determination circuit 17. It operates when the cooler device ON signal is input to the unit 4. The operation control of the electric motor 2a that determines the cooling capacity of the cooler device 3 is performed by setting the temperature setting lever 5 that is shared with the heater device 3 (a signal obtained by A / D converting the resistance value) and the evaporator outlet temperature sensor 8. From the control unit 4 to the inverter circuit 19 based on the temperature signal input from the control unit 4 to the inverter circuit 18. As the evaporator outlet temperature sensor 8, a disc type thermistor or the like is suitable.

Further, the blower fan switch 6 of this embodiment can be switched between three levels of strength, and the setting position of the switch is input to the control unit 4 via the blower fan ON / OFF determination circuit 20. The operation of the heater device 3 and the cooler device 2 described above is limited to the case where the blower fan switch 6 is ON regardless of its strength.

Next, an example of control in the control unit 4 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The operation of the blower fan 1 is a necessary condition for starting the operation of the air conditioner described above. Therefore, first, the set position of the blower fan switch 6 is checked. At this time, if the blower fan switch 6 is set to the OFF position, both the cooler device 2 and the heater device 3 remain stopped. However, if the blower fan switch 6 is in the ON position (that is, the blower fan 1 is in the operating state) regardless of its strength, then the set position of the cooler switch 7 is checked.

When the cooler switch 7 is set to ON, the occupant has determined that the operation of the cooler device 3 is necessary, and the operation of the heater device 3 is always stopped before the cooler control is started. In this cooler control, the difference between the set temperature determined according to the set position of the temperature setting lever 5 and the blowout temperature detected by the evaporator blowout temperature sensor 8 (blowout temperature-set temperature) is calculated and based on the result. Outputs an inverter control command. That is, when the temperature difference is large, the rotation speed of the electric motor 2a is increased to increase the amount of refrigerant supplied to the evaporator. On the contrary, when the temperature difference is small, the rotation speed is decreased to reduce the amount of refrigerant. To control.

On the other hand, when the cooler switch 7 is set to OFF, the occupant determines that it is not hot enough to operate the cooler device 2, and the operation of the cooler device 2 is stopped. Start heater control. In this heater control, the temperature detected by the heater blowout temperature sensor 9 is first checked to confirm that the detected temperature is not a high temperature exceeding a predetermined value (for example, 100 ° C). Then, the set position of the temperature setting lever 5 is checked. The temperature setting lever 5 indicates the set position as a change in the resistance R, and the smaller the resistance value R, the lower the set temperature. Therefore, when the resistance value R is larger than a predetermined value (for example, 2.5 KΩ), the heater device 3 is operated, and when the resistance value R is less than the predetermined value, the operation of the heater device 3 is stopped. When the heater outlet temperature sensor 9 detects a high temperature exceeding a predetermined value, the operation of the heater device 3 is immediately stopped to prevent the thermal fuse 10 from becoming an abnormally high temperature such as melting.

Further, the flowchart of FIG. 4 shows an example of heater control when three heater devices 3a, 3b, 3c are provided, and the resistance value R output from the temperature setting lever 5 is 2.5 KΩ. In the following cases, all the heater devices 3 are stopped, and one is provided when 2.5KΩ <R ≦ 3.5KΩ, two are provided when 3.5KΩ <R ≦ 4.5KΩ, and 4.5KΩ <R In this case, by energizing all three of them, it is possible to perform fine heater control in three steps as needed. Although the heater control has three stages in this embodiment, it is needless to say that the control can be performed in two stages or four stages or more by changing the number of heater devices.

Therefore, according to the air conditioner for an electric vehicle described above, only one of the cooler device 2 and the heater device 3 operates depending on whether the cooler switch 7 is turned on or off, which is necessary for air conditioning of the vehicle interior. Power can be kept to a minimum. Moreover, since the inverter circuit is used for the motor control of the cooler device 2 and the heater device 3 is divided to perform fine heater control, it is possible to balance power saving and a comfortable vehicle interior environment at an appropriate level. ..

[0019]

[Effect of the device]

 According to the air conditioner for an electric vehicle of the present invention described above, the cooler device and the heater device are prevented from being used at the same time, and the limited battery capacity is effectively used to secure the mileage and improve the vehicle interior environment. Can be achieved with an appropriate balance, which has a great effect on the spread of electric vehicles.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an air conditioner for an electric vehicle according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic wiring diagram of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of control in a control unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a heater device control example when three heater devices are provided.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Blower fan 2 Cooler device (evaporator) 3 Heater device 4 Control unit 5 Temperature setting lever 6 Blower fan switch 7 Cooler switch 8 Evaporator outlet temperature sensor 9 Heater outlet temperature sensor 10 Thermal fuse

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Creator Hiroyasu Suzuki 5-3-8, Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (72) Creator Kazuo Natori 2-4-1-1, Nishitsujikeoka, Chofu-shi, Tokyo Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd. Technical Research Institute (72) Inventor Noboru Fujiwara 2-4-1 Nishi Tsutsujigaoka, Chofu City, Tokyo Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. Technical Research Institute

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An air conditioner for an electric vehicle, which is mounted on an electric vehicle that travels with the electric energy of a battery mounted on a vehicle and uses the electric energy to cool and heat a vehicle interior,
An electric heater device for exchanging electric energy for heating the vehicle interior, a cooler device for cooling the vehicle interior with a refrigerant supplied by an electric compressor, a cooler switch for selecting operation of the cooler device, and the heater device. And a control unit for controlling the operation of the cooler device, and when the operation of the cooler device is selected by the cooler switch, the operation of the heater device is stopped so that both are not operated simultaneously. Air-conditioning system for electric vehicles.