Patent ID: 8720538

Claim:
A cold energy storage system for a vehicle having an air-conditioning unit with an evaporator and a heater core, where the cold energy storage system stores cold energy when a cooling operation is performed and supplements the cooling operation with use of the stored cold energy after the cooling operation is stopped, the cold energy storage system comprising: a cold energy storage tank including a liquid storage layer that stores engine coolant, said liquid storage layer forming an inside layer of said storage tank, a refrigerant layer in which a refrigerant from the evaporator flows, said refrigerant layer forming an intermediate layer of said storage tank, and a vacuum insulation layer, said vacuum insulation layer forming an outside layer of said storage tank, wherein said storage tank connects in parallel to an engine coolant circulation circuit to the heater core; a mode switcher which switches between a storing cold energy mode, where the engine coolant stored in said liquid storage layer is refrigerated by the refrigerant from the evaporator when the cooling operation is performed, and a cooling supplement mode, where refrigerated engine coolant in the liquid storage layer is introduced to the heater core after the cooling operation is stopped; wherein said storage tank comprises a plurality of tank constructional elements that have openings, an inlet-side lid plate, and an outlet-side lid plate, wherein said plurality of tank constructional elements are stacked so as to form a stack of said tank constructional elements, and wherein said inlet-side lid plate and said outlet-side lid plate block said openings of said stack of said tank constructional elements.