Patent ID: 6688120
Filing Date: 2004-02-10
Classification: B60H,F25B,F25D

Abstract:
An air conditioner for a vehicle including a navigation unit for searching vehicle-travel state information and road information, the air conditioner comprising:an evaporator for cooling air to be blown into a passenger compartment of the vehicle; a compressor driven by power of a vehicle engine, for compressing and discharging refrigerant having passed through the evaporator; a cold storage unit for performing a cold storage operation using cooling operation of the evaporator; and a control unit for controlling cooling temperature of the evaporator, wherein: when the vehicle engine is driven, the control unit selects one of a cold storage mode where the cooling temperature of the evaporator is made lower than a predetermined temperature so that the cold storage operation in the cold storage unit is performed, and a normal cooling mode where the cooling temperature of the evaporator is higher than that in the cold storage mode; when the vehicle engine is stopped, the control unit selects a cold release mode where air is cooled by using cold release operation from the cold storage unit; the control unit estimates a necessary time period from a present time to a time at which the vehicle is stopped next, and a vehicle stopping time period from the time at which the vehicle is stopped next and a time at which the vehicle is re-started, based on the vehicle-travel state information and the road information searched by the navigation unit; the control unit calculates a necessary cold release amount necessary for cooling in the vehicle-stopping time period, based on the estimated vehicle-stopping time period; and the control unit controls operation of the cold storage mode so that the cold storage is performed in the necessary time period by a cold storage amount corresponding to the necessary cold release amount.