Patent ID: 8084156

Claim:
A cooling device for cooling a battery contained in a battery case and mounted on a vehicle, the cooling device comprising: an air supply channel achieving fluid communication between a vehicle interior or an outside of the vehicle and an inner part of the battery case; an air supply system for supplying a volume of air via the air supply channel to the inner part of the battery case; a control system, the control system comprising a motor driving portion, a memory portion, and a judging portion; an air volume measuring system for measuring the volume of the air supplied to the inner part of the battery case; and a filter member, the filter member being disposed so that only the air that has passed through the filter member is supplied to the inner part of the battery case; wherein the air supply system comprises a fan and a motor for driving the fan, the motor driving portion switches a voltage applied to the motor between multiple stages according to an indication of the judging portion so as to adjust a fan speed of the fan in stages, the memory portion stores a reference air volume obtained in advance by measuring an actual volume of the air supplied to the inner part of the battery case when the fan is driven at each of the stages of the fan speed, and the judging portion calculates a difference between the reference air volume corresponding to the fan speed of the fan at constant time intervals or at all times and the volume of air measured by the air volume measuring system at that time and, when the calculated difference is equal to or larger than a preset tolerance value, judges that there is an anomaly in the volume of the air supplied to the battery case, and wherein the reference air volume is obtained by measuring an actual volume of the air supplied to the battery case when the fan is driven while an unused filter member is provided.