JP2000318442A - Air conditioner for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To carry out dehumidification of air by the required minimum motive power by providing a Peltier element part in an air passage such as a defrost blow-off duct, a side duct, a vent blow-off duct, etc., and blowing off air of the air passage outside from an endothermic part of the Peltier element part through a heat radiation part. SOLUTION: A Peltier element part holding passage 61 is constituted of a passage 61d to which a defrost blow-off duct 6m is projected from a duct branch part 6a to be branched from a duct 2 and sends air before treatment to an endothermic part 61b of a Peltier element part 61a, a passage 61e to which air after dehumidification is returned to flow and sent to a heat radiation part 61c of the Peltier element part 61 and a passage 61f to which air after heating is returned to flow and sent in a direction of a defrost blow-off port 6. Thereafter, dehumidication and reheating of air after dehumidification are carried out at the same Peltier element part 61a. Consequently, the heat radiation part 61c is cooled by dehumidified and cooled air, and cooling efficiency of the Peltier element part 61a is improved by reducing the movement of heat from the heat radiation part 61c to the endothermic part 61b.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioner for a vehicle, and more particularly to an air conditioner for performing dehumidification with a minimum necessary power.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an air conditioner for a vehicle cools an inside air or an outside air from an inside / outside air switching door side by an evaporator.
The mixing ratio of the warm air heated by the heater core and the cool air cooled by the evaporator is adjusted by an air mixing door, and a VENT outlet, a defrost outlet, a FOOT outlet, or a side outlet provided on the downstream side of the duct. Air conditioning is performed by blowing air from the outlet. In this case, the evaporator is cooled by a refrigeration cycle that drives the compressor. However, it is important to perform cooling while minimizing the operation rate of the compressor to save power. In this case, energy saving
Since the heat source is insufficient due to power saving, hybrid vehicle or direct injection of the engine, it is attempted to increase the inside air rate at the time of air conditioning in order to reduce the heat load of the vehicle.

[0003]

However, 70 g
If the ventilation rate is lowered (increased shrinkage rate) because the moisture of / h / person exits the occupant, the humidity fogs the window and the shrinkage rate cannot be increased much. Further, since the compressor must be operated for dehumidification, it is difficult to save power. In addition, since the cooled air must be reheated for dehumidification, the shortage of the insufficient heat source is further reduced, leading to a decrease in heating performance.

[0004] The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, in which a VENT outlet which requires dehumidification,
Only for the air blown out from the defrost outlet and the side outlet are dehumidified by the Peltier element part, and the dehumidified air is reheated by the Peltier element part itself and blown out. Propose an air conditioner.

[0005]

The invention according to claim 1 is
A Peltier element portion is provided in an air passage of at least one of a defrost blow-off duct, a side duct, and a VENT blow-off duct, and air in the air passage is blown out from a heat absorbing portion of the Peltier device portion through a heat radiating portion to the outside. Thus, the air was configured to be dehumidified.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first passage for sending unprocessed air to a heat absorbing portion of a Peltier element portion, and a second passage for sending dehumidified air from the first passage to a radiating portion of the Peltier element portion. A Peltier element holding passage including a passage and a third passage for sending the heated air from the second passage toward the outlet is provided.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a vehicle air conditioner according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an air conditioning unit, and reference numeral 20 denotes an air conditioning control unit that controls the air conditioning unit 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the air conditioning unit 1 has an inside air inlet 3 and an outside air inlet 4 at an upstream end of a duct 2 and a VENT outlet 5 (a chest outlet) at a downstream end of the duct 2. , A defrost (defrosting) outlet 6 and a FOOT outlet 7 (foot outlet) or a side outlet (not shown), and inside the duct 2, an inside / outside air switching door 8, a blower fan 9, an evaporator 10, an air mix A door 11, a heater core 12, and a plurality of outlet mode switching doors 13, 14 are arranged in order from the upstream side to the downstream side. The inside / outside air switching door 8 is driven and controlled by an actuator 15. For example, the inside air inlet 3 is opened and the outside air inlet 4 is closed so that the entire amount of air introduced into the duct 2 is inside air. Opening and closing to select one of “introduction” and “introduction of outside air” in which the inside air introduction port 3 is closed and the outside air introduction port 4 is opened and the entire amount of air introduced into the duct 2 is outside air. Controlled.
The blower fan 9 is driven by a blower motor 16 and introduces air into the duct 2 from one of the inside air inlet 3 and the outside air inlet 4 according to the open / close state of the inside / outside air switching door 8.
The introduced air passes through the evaporator 10 and is cooled. The air that has passed through the evaporator 10 and has become cold air is divided into air that bypasses the heater core 12 and air that passes through the heater core 12, according to the opening degree of the air mix door 11 controlled by the actuator 17,
The cool air bypassing the heater core 12 and the heater core 1
The warm air that has passed through 2 is mixed on the downstream side of the heater core 12 to generate appropriate conditioned air. This air-conditioned air is blown out by the blower mode switching door 1 controlled by the actuator 18.
The air is blown into the vehicle via one or more of the VENT outlet 5, the defrost outlet 6, and the FOOT outlet 7 according to the open / close state of the switches 3 and 14. In this case, the conditioned air is blown from the side outlets provided on both sides of the dashboard of the vehicle.

As shown in FIG. 1, the blower motor 16 and each of the actuators 15, 17 and 18 are controlled by a control signal 20a from the air conditioning control means 20 to perform air conditioning in the vehicle. A plurality of sensors for detecting physical quantities, such as a room temperature setter 21 and a room temperature sensor 22, and an outside air temperature sensor 23 and a solar radiation sensor 24, are connected to the air conditioning control means 20, and outputs from these are input.

As shown in FIG. 2, a Peltier element 61a is provided in a defrost outlet duct 6m extending from the duct 2 in the direction of the defrost outlet 6. The Peltier element portion 61a is located in the Peltier element holding passage 61 as shown in FIG. The Peltier element holding passage 61 is configured as follows. That is, the first passage 61d in which the defrost outlet duct 6m projects from the duct branch portion 6a branched from the duct 2 and sends the unprocessed air from the front to the rear of the heat absorbing portion 61b of the Peltier element portion 61a, and the first passage 61d. The air after dehumidification from 61d is U-turned to make the Peltier element 61
Second passage 6 sent from the front to the rear of the heat radiating portion 61c
1e and a third passage 61 for feeding the heated air from the second passage 61e in a U-turn to the direction of the defrost outlet 6
f. In this case, the bottom surface of the first passage 61d is inclined to have a drain pipe 61g,
The condensed water dropped from b flows down the inclined surface and is discharged from the drain pipe 61g via a hose (not shown). The heat absorbing portion 61b of the Peltier element portion 61a is subjected to a water-repellent treatment.

The Peltier element portion 61a is shown in FIGS.
As shown in FIG. 7, an electrode 62c is provided at one end of a P-type semiconductor element 62a and an N-type semiconductor element 62b, and the common electrode 6 is provided at the other end.
2d is provided and the electrodes 62 are energized by energizing both electrodes.
Peltier elements configured such that the c side is a heat radiating section and the electrode 62d side is a heat absorbing section are arranged in a matrix, and these Peltier elements are sandwiched between upper and lower alumina insulating substrates 63a and 63b. 64b are arranged. Aluminum fins 65a and 65b are arranged outside the aluminum substrates 64a and 64b.
The aluminum fins 65a and 65b are formed in a corrugated plate shape. A plurality of air passages 61a parallel to each other are disposed on the second passage 61e side, and the aluminum fins 6 on the opposite side are arranged.
The air passage 61b of 5b is disposed in the first passage 61d.
The air is cooled and dehumidified while passing through the first passage 61b, and is heated while passing through the first passage 66a. When the air before treatment is sent from the duct 2 to the first passage 61d,
After passing through the first passage 61b, the air is U-turned and sent to the second passage 61e. After passing through the first passage 61c, the air is again U-turned to be processed air, and becomes the first passage 61f. And is blown out from the defrost blowout port 6.

According to the above configuration, the Peltier element portion 61
By energizing the Peltier element a, the fin 65b
The side becomes the heat absorbing portion 61b, and the air before treatment passes through this portion, so that the air is dehumidified and the fins 65b are removed.
After that, it is U-turned, passes from the front side of the fin 65a as the heat radiating portion 61c, is heated here, and this air is again U-turned to the third passage 6
1f, and is blown out from the defrost blowout port 6.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, the window glass temperature Tw and the in-vehicle humidity H are input from a sensor (not shown) to the air conditioning control unit 20, and the dew point temperature Td is calculated. This controls the energization of the Peltier element of the Peltier element section 61a.

The control operation at this time will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 7, in step S1, it is determined whether the mode is the defrost blowing mode or the defrost and FOOT blowing modes. If neither is the case, the system of the Peltier element unit 61a is turned off. In the case of the FOOT blowing mode, a calculation is performed based on a calculation formula of Tw <Td + k (k: a predetermined value for preventing fogging of the window). As a result, if the above calculation formula is not satisfied, the system is turned off. If the arithmetic expression is satisfied, the system is turned on to activate the Peltier element portion 61a, dehumidify the unprocessed air sent from the duct 2 in the direction of the defrost duct 6m, and then heat the air before blowing out from the defrost outlet 6. ing.

In the first embodiment, the same Peltier element 61a is used to dehumidify and reheat the air after dehumidification. Since the radiator 61c is cooled by the air cooled by the dehumidification, the radiator 61c is used. The transfer of heat from the heat absorbing portion 61b to the heat absorbing portion 61b is small, and the cooling efficiency of the Peltier element portion 61a is high. Moreover, the heat absorbing portion 61b is directed downward so that the dew condensation water is easily dropped by gravity. Further, the heat sink composed of the heat absorbing portion fins 65b is subjected to a water-repellent treatment so that dew condensation water is easily released. Note that the entire configuration including the Peltier element portion 61a of the present invention may be provided in a duct communicating with the side outlet or a duct communicating with the VENT outlet.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to dehumidify only the windows, saving power. In addition, since the evaporator is not used for dehumidification, the water temperature of the low heat source vehicle is not lowered more than necessary, so that a decrease in heating performance can be prevented. In addition, since not all the air in the vehicle compartment is dehumidified by using the evaporator, the eyes and skin are hardly dried due to excessive dehumidification, so that comfort is not reduced.
Furthermore, the apparatus can be made smaller by processing only the air related to the fogging of the window, instead of processing the entire processing air volume of the HVAC.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified configuration diagram showing the configuration of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a main part of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a main part of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a main part of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a circuit configuration according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 air conditioning unit, 20 air conditioning control means, 5 VENT
Outlet, 6 defrost outlet, 7 FOOT outlet, 6 m defrost outlet duct, 61 Peltier element holding passage, 61 a Peltier element part, 61 b heat absorbing part, 61 d heat radiating part, 61 e first path, 61 e second path, 61 f first 3 passages, 61g drain pipe,

Claims (2)

[Claims] A Peltier element is provided in an air passage of at least one of a defrost blow duct, a side blow duct, and a VENT blow duct, and air in the air passage flows from a heat absorbing portion of the Peltier device to a heating portion. An air conditioner for a vehicle, wherein the air is blown out to the outside to dehumidify the air. 2. The Peltier element section has a heat absorbing side and a heating side on both sides, a first passage for sending air before processing to a heat absorbing section of the Peltier element section, and after dehumidification from the first passage. A Peltier element holding passage composed of a second passage for sending the air to the heat radiating portion of the Peltier element portion and a third passage for sending the heated air from the second passage toward the outlet. The vehicle air conditioner according to claim 1, wherein the air conditioner is provided.