Blower control arrangement for air conditioning unit or the like
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An air conditioning unit for a vehicle having a cabin, comprising:
- a blower for inducing air to flow through a duct of said air conditioning unit;
a heat exchanger arrangement associated with said duct and arranged to vary the temperature of the air induced to flow through said duct;
a sensor arrangement for sensing at least one parameter affecting the environment of said cabin and outputting an indication of said parameter;
a control circuit for controlling the energization of said blower according to an energization schedule, a first extremum of which is selectively varied in response to the output of said sensor arrangement, and for varying the rate at which said schedule proceeds from said first extremum to a second extremum in accordance with the difference between the extrema.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The blower of an automotive air conditioning unit is energized according to a flexible schedule wherein the maximum and minimum voltages applied to the blower motor are varied in response to a plurality of sensed parameters which influence the environment controlled by the air conditioning unit so that during extremely hot and cold weather suitably powerful energization is realized while during milder weather the energization is limited to avoid unnecessary noise generation.
36 Citations
34 Claims
-
1. An air conditioning unit for a vehicle having a cabin, comprising:
-
a blower for inducing air to flow through a duct of said air conditioning unit; a heat exchanger arrangement associated with said duct and arranged to vary the temperature of the air induced to flow through said duct; a sensor arrangement for sensing at least one parameter affecting the environment of said cabin and outputting an indication of said parameter; a control circuit for controlling the energization of said blower according to an energization schedule, a first extremum of which is selectively varied in response to the output of said sensor arrangement, and for varying the rate at which said schedule proceeds from said first extremum to a second extremum in accordance with the difference between the extrema. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. An air conditioning unit for conditioning air in an enclosed space, comprising:
-
a blower for inducing air to flow through a duct of said air conditioning unit; a heat exchanger arrangement associated with said duct for varying the temperature of the air induced to flow through said duct; a senor arrangement for sensing at least one parameter affecting the environment of said enclosed space and outputting an indication thereof; and a processor for controlling the energization of said blower according to a derived schedule, said processor being arranged to derive said derived schedule by; (a) deriving, based on the data inputted to said processor by said sensor arrangement, the amount of heat which must be one of added to and subtracted from said enclosed space to achieve a desired temperature; (b) deriving, based on the amount of heat which must be one of added to and subtracted from said enclosed space, the optimal energization level for said blower; and (c) based on the latter derivation, deriving a temperature dependent schedule for energizing said blower. - View Dependent Claims (12)
-
-
13. A method of operating an air conditioning unit which conditions the air in an enclosed space;
- comprising the steps of;
inducing air to flow through a duct of said air conditioning unit by using a blower; varying the temperature of said air induced to flow in said duct by said blower, by using a heat exchanger arrangement; sensing at least one parameter affecting the environment of said enclosed space using a sensor and outputting an indication thereof to a processor; energizing said blower according to a schedule derived by said processor via the steps of; deriving, based on the data inputted to said processor by said sensor arrangement, the amount of heat which must be one of added to and subtracted from said enclosed space to achieve a desired temperature; deriving, based on the derived amount of heat which must be one of added to or subtracted from said enclosed space, the optimal energization level for said blower; and based on said derived optimal energization level, deriving a temperature dependent schedule for energizing said blower. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
- comprising the steps of;
-
20. A blower control system for an automotive air conditioner comprising:
-
an induction system including means for adjusting a temperature of the air to be discharged into a vehicle compartment; a blower disposed within said induction system and energizing the air flowing through said induction system, said blower being driven at various speeds within a predetermined variation range; a detector detecting a parameter which affects the temperature condition in the vehicle compartment, said detector producing a detector signal having a value representative of the detected parameter; and a controller deriving a heat value affecting air conditioning relative to a desired vehicle compartment air temperature in the vehicle compartment on the basis of said detector signal value and deriving said variation range of blower speed on the basis of the derived heat value, said controller deriving a control signal having a value representative of the blower speed within the derived variation range according to a predetermined schedule. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. A blower control system for an automotive air conditioner comprising:
-
an induction system including means for adjusting a temperature of the air to be discharged into a vehicle compartment; a blower disposed within said induction system and energizing the air flowing through said induction system, said blower being driven at various speeds within a predetermined variation range; a detector detecting a parameter which affects the temperature condition in the vehicle compartment, said detector producing a detector signal having a value representative of the detected parameter; and a controller associated with said blower for feeding a control signal to adjust the driving speed of said blower according to a predetermined schedule, said controller being responsive to said detector signal for varying said schedule depending upon the value of said detector signal. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
-
-
32. An air conditioning system for a vehicle passenger cabin, comprising:
-
a blower for inducing air flow; a blower driver connected to said blower for producing a blower drive voltage for driving said blower; a sensor for sensing cabin heat content and temperature and producing respective indications of said cabin heat content and temperature; and control means, responsive to said sensor, and connected to said blower driver, for deriving a function in accordance with said sensed cabin heat content and temerature, and for causing said driver blower to vary the magnitude of said blower drive voltage in accordance with said derived function using sensed cabin temperature as a variable. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34)
-
Specification