JP7559699B2 - Vehicle air conditioning system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioning system that conditions the interior of a vehicle before a user gets into the vehicle.

Vehicle air conditioning devices that are mounted on vehicles and that condition the interior of the vehicle are known. Vehicle air conditioning devices that condition the interior of the vehicle before the user gets into the vehicle (pre-air conditioning) are also known. Patent Document 1 discloses a vehicle air conditioning device that, if the user does not get into the vehicle after performing pre-air conditioning for a predetermined period of time, asks the user whether to extend the pre-air conditioning.

International Publication No. WO 2013/124990

In the above-mentioned vehicle air conditioner, when pre-air conditioning is extended, the air conditioning control is performed in the same way as before the extension even if the temperature inside the vehicle cabin is close to the set temperature, which may result in an increase in power consumption more than necessary.

Therefore, the present invention aims to provide a vehicle air conditioner that can reduce power consumption when pre-air conditioning is performed for an extended period of time.

The vehicle air conditioning device according to the present invention is a vehicle air conditioning device that conditions the interior of the vehicle for a predetermined time before the user gets into the vehicle, and is characterized in that when the vehicle interior is further air-conditioned even after the predetermined time has elapsed, if the absolute value of the difference between the temperature inside the vehicle interior and the set temperature is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the output for conditioning the vehicle interior is reduced.

In the vehicle air conditioning system according to the present invention, it is preferable to ask the user whether to extend the air conditioning of the vehicle interior after a predetermined time has elapsed.

In the vehicle air conditioning system according to the present invention, which has a refrigeration cycle including a compressor, it is preferable to operate the compressor at a rotation speed equal to or lower than a predetermined rotation speed when reducing the output during air conditioning of the vehicle interior.

The vehicle air conditioning system of the present invention can reduce power consumption when pre-air conditioning is performed for an extended period of time.

1 is a schematic diagram showing a vehicle according to an embodiment; 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an air conditioning device for a vehicle according to an embodiment; 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a vehicle air conditioning device according to an embodiment; 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating pre-air conditioning of a vehicle air conditioner according to an embodiment of the present invention; 6 is a graph showing time series changes in the compressor rotation speed and the vehicle interior temperature when pre-air conditioning is performed for an extended period of time. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the flow of compressor operation control when pre-air conditioning is extended.

An example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below. In the following description, the specific shapes, materials, directions, values, etc. are examples to facilitate understanding of the present invention, and can be changed as appropriate according to the application, purpose, specifications, etc.

The vehicle 10 according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

The vehicle 10 has a vehicle air conditioning device 20 according to the present invention. The vehicle 10 in this example is an electric vehicle that runs on a motor powered by electricity supplied from a battery. Note that the vehicle may be, for example, a hybrid vehicle or an engine vehicle.

The vehicle air conditioner 20 is a device that conditions the interior of the vehicle compartment 11. The vehicle air conditioner 20 has an air conditioning ECU 30 that adjusts each device described below, an operation unit 31 that operates the set temperature of the interior of the vehicle compartment 11, a smartphone 32 that allows the user to remotely start the vehicle air conditioner 20 to air condition the interior of the vehicle compartment 11 before the user gets into the vehicle 10 (hereinafter, pre-air conditioning), and an interior temperature sensor 33 that detects the temperature of the interior of the vehicle compartment 11.

The vehicle air conditioner 20 will be described in detail using Figure 2.

As described above, the vehicle air conditioning system 20 is a device that cools or heats the vehicle interior 11, and includes an air passage 21 that supplies temperature-adjusted air to the vehicle interior 11, a blower 22 that generates an air flow toward the vehicle interior 11, an inside/outside switching door 23 that switches between introducing air from inside the vehicle interior 11 (inside air) or introducing air from outside the vehicle 10 (outside air), and a refrigeration cycle 24, the details of which will be described later.

The refrigeration cycle 24 is composed of a compressor 25 that compresses the refrigerant, a four-way switching valve 26 that switches between cooling and heating operation, an exterior heat exchanger 27 located at the front of the vehicle body, an expansion valve 28 that expands the refrigerant, and an interior heat exchanger 29 located in the air passage 21.

A scroll compressor is preferably used as the compressor 25, and the capacity is controlled according to the cooling load or heating load in the passenger compartment 11. The capacity of the compressor 25 is controlled by variably controlling the rotation speed of the electric motor that drives the compressor 25.

The four-way switching valve 26 switches between cooling operation, in which the refrigerant discharged from the compressor 25 is supplied to the outdoor heat exchanger 27, causing the outdoor heat exchanger 27 to function as a condenser and the indoor heat exchanger 29 to function as an evaporator, and heating operation, in which the refrigerant discharged from the compressor 25 is supplied to the indoor heat exchanger 29, causing the indoor heat exchanger 29 to function as a condenser and the outdoor heat exchanger 27 to function as an evaporator.

The air conditioning ECU 30 will be described using Figures 3 to 5.

As described above, the air conditioning ECU 30 controls the vehicle air conditioning device 20. As described in detail below, the air conditioning ECU 30 can reduce power consumption when pre-air conditioning is extended.

The air conditioning ECU 30 has a central processing unit (CPU) that is an arithmetic processing unit, and storage units such as a random access memory (RAM) and a read-only memory (ROM), and performs signal processing according to a program pre-stored in the ROM while utilizing the temporary storage function of the RAM.

As shown in FIG. 3, the air conditioning ECU 30 is connected to the blower 22, the inside/outside switching door 23, the compressor 25, the four-way switching valve 26, the expansion valve 28, the operation unit 31, and the in-vehicle temperature sensor 33, and is wirelessly connected to the smartphone 32. Signals are sent from the operation unit 31, the smartphone 32, and the in-vehicle temperature sensor 33, and the ECU 30 transmits signals to the compressor 25, etc.

The air conditioning ECU 30 has a pre-air conditioning execution unit 34 that executes pre-air conditioning, a pre-air conditioning extension confirmation unit 35 that confirms whether to extend pre-air conditioning after executing pre-air conditioning for a predetermined time, an interior temperature determination unit 36 that determines whether the interior temperature is close to a set temperature, a pre-air conditioning extension unit 37 that extends pre-air conditioning after executing pre-air conditioning for a predetermined time, a first compressor control unit 38 that variably controls the rotation speed of the compressor 25 to operate the compressor 25 as usual, and a second compressor control unit 39 that variably controls the rotation speed of the compressor 25 to be equal to or lower than a predetermined rotation speed to reduce the output of the vehicle air conditioner 20.

The pre-air conditioning execution unit 34 executes the pre-air conditioning as described above. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the pre-air conditioning execution unit 34 starts the vehicle air conditioner 20 by remote control via the smartphone 32 before the user gets into the vehicle 10, to condition the interior of the vehicle 11. The pre-air conditioning execution unit 34 also ends the pre-air conditioning when a predetermined time has elapsed since the start of the pre-air conditioning, when the user gets into the vehicle 10, or when the power consumption is equal to or exceeds a predetermined amount of power.

The pre-air conditioning extension confirmation unit 35 confirms with the user whether or not to extend the pre-air conditioning even after the pre-air conditioning execution unit 34 has executed the pre-air conditioning for a predetermined time as described above. The pre-air conditioning extension confirmation unit 35 may confirm with the smartphone 32 each time pre-air conditioning is executed, or it may be possible to set in advance with the smartphone 32 whether or not to extend the pre-air conditioning.

As described above, the interior temperature determination unit 36 determines whether the interior temperature detected by the interior temperature sensor 33 is close to the set temperature set by the operation unit 31 (which may be the smartphone 32 in the case of pre-air conditioning). More specifically, the interior temperature determination unit 36 determines whether the absolute value of the difference between the interior temperature and the set temperature is equal to or less than a predetermined value.

The pre-air conditioning extension unit 37 extends and executes the pre-air conditioning as described above. The pre-air conditioning extension unit 37 extends and executes the pre-air conditioning only when the pre-air conditioning execution unit 34 ends the pre-air conditioning after a predetermined time has elapsed since its start, and the extension of the pre-air conditioning is confirmed by the pre-air conditioning extension confirmation unit 35.

As described above, the first compressor control unit 38 variably controls the rotation speed of the compressor 25 to operate the compressor 25 as usual. More specifically, the first compressor control unit 38 variably controls the rotation speed of the compressor 25 so that the temperature (evaporation temperature or condensation temperature) of the indoor heat exchanger 29 becomes the target evaporation temperature or target condensation temperature. The target evaporation temperature or target condensation temperature is calculated from the target blowing temperature. The target blowing temperature is calculated from the set temperature, the temperature of the passenger compartment 11 (interior temperature), the exterior temperature of the vehicle 10, the opening degree of the interior/exterior switching door 23, etc.

As shown in FIG. 5(A), when pre-air conditioning is extended after it has been performed for a predetermined time, if the temperature inside the vehicle has not reached the set temperature, the first compressor control unit 38 variably controls the rotation speed of the compressor 25 as usual.

When the pre-air conditioning is extended by the pre-air conditioning extension unit 37, if the absolute value of the difference between the vehicle interior temperature and the set temperature is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the second compressor control unit 39 variably controls the rotation speed of the compressor 25 to operate the compressor 25 in order to reduce the output of the vehicle air conditioner 20. More specifically, the compressor 25 is operated at a rotation speed equal to or less than a predetermined rotation speed. Here, the predetermined rotation speed refers to a rotation speed of the compressor 25 that is energy efficient (e.g., 1000 rpm).

According to the second compressor control unit 39, when pre-air conditioning is extended and the temperature inside the vehicle interior 11 is sufficiently close to the set temperature through pre-air conditioning, the compressor 25 is operated at a rotation speed equal to or lower than a predetermined rotation speed that is highly energy efficient, thereby reducing power consumption.

As shown in FIG. 5(B), when pre-air conditioning is extended after it has been performed for a predetermined time, if the temperature inside the vehicle is close to the set temperature, the second compressor control unit 39 variably controls the compressor 25 at or below a predetermined rotation speed with high energy efficiency. As a result, if the temperature inside the vehicle interior 11 has sufficiently come close to the set temperature through pre-air conditioning, the compressor 25 is operated at or below a predetermined rotation speed with high energy efficiency, thereby reducing power consumption.

The flow of operation control of the compressor 25 when pre-air conditioning is extended will be explained using Figure 6.

In step S11, the pre-air conditioning execution unit 34 performs pre-air conditioning to air-condition the vehicle interior 11 by cooling or heating operation before the user gets into the vehicle 10.

In step S12, the pre-air conditioning execution unit 34 determines whether a predetermined time has elapsed. If the predetermined time has elapsed, the process proceeds to step S13 to end the pre-air conditioning. As a result, if the pre-air conditioning is ended because the user gets into the vehicle 10 or the power consumption reaches or exceeds a predetermined power, the extension of the pre-air conditioning from step S13 onwards is not executed.

In step S13, the pre-air conditioning extension confirmation unit 35 checks whether to extend and execute the pre-air conditioning. If the pre-air conditioning is to be extended, the process proceeds to step S14. As a result, if the user does not want to extend the pre-air conditioning, the extension of the pre-air conditioning from step S14 onwards is not executed.

In step S14, the vehicle interior temperature determination unit 36 determines whether the absolute value of the difference between the vehicle interior temperature and the set temperature is greater than a predetermined value. If the absolute value of the difference between the vehicle interior temperature and the set temperature is greater than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S15. If the absolute value of the difference between the vehicle interior temperature and the set temperature is equal to or less than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S16. This changes the pattern of variable control of the rotation speed of the compressor 25 depending on whether the vehicle interior temperature has sufficiently approached the set temperature through pre-air conditioning.

In step S15, the first compressor control unit 38 operates the compressor 25 by variably controlling the rotation speed of the compressor 25 as usual. This allows the temperature inside the vehicle to quickly approach the set temperature when pre-air conditioning is extended.

In step S16, the second compressor control unit 39 operates the compressor 25 at a rotation speed equal to or lower than a predetermined rotation speed at which energy efficiency is high. This allows the output of the vehicle air conditioner 20 to be reduced.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment and its variations, and various modifications and improvements are possible within the scope of the claims of this application.

In this example, the vehicle 10 is an electric vehicle, but if the vehicle 10 is an engine vehicle, the exhaust heat from the engine is used for heating operation, so only cooling operation is subject to the operation control of the compressor 25 in this example.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 vehicle, 11 vehicle interior, 20 vehicle air conditioner, 21 air passage, 22 blower, 23 interior/exterior switching door, 24 refrigeration cycle, 25 compressor, 26 four-way switching valve, 27 interior heat exchanger, 28 expansion valve, 29 exterior heat exchanger, 30 ECU, 31 operation unit, 32 smartphone, 33 interior temperature sensor, 34 pre-air conditioning execution unit, 35 pre-air conditioning extension confirmation unit, 36 interior temperature determination unit, 37 pre-air conditioning extension unit, 38 first compressor control, 39 second compressor control unit

Claims (3)

An air conditioning device for a vehicle that conditions the interior of a vehicle for a predetermined period of time before a user gets into the vehicle,
When the vehicle interior is air-conditioned for an extended period of time even after the predetermined time has elapsed, if an absolute value of a difference between the vehicle interior temperature and a set temperature is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, an output for air-conditioning the vehicle interior is reduced.
Vehicle air conditioning system. 2. The vehicle air conditioning system according to claim 1,
confirming with the user whether or not to extend the air conditioning of the vehicle interior after the predetermined time has elapsed;
Vehicle air conditioning system. 3. The vehicle air conditioning system according to claim 1,
A refrigeration cycle including a compressor,
When reducing the output during air conditioning of the vehicle interior, the compressor is operated at a rotation speed equal to or lower than a predetermined rotation speed.
Vehicle air conditioning system.

Images