A vehicle includes a vapor-injection heat pump having a refrigerant loop with an evaporator configured to cool cabin air, the evaporator coupled to an electronically controllable pressure regulating valve having a fully-open position with near-zero pressure drop, and a cabin conditioning coolant loop having a heater core configured to selectively heat the cabin air. A controller is configured to control the valve to maintain temperature and pressure of the refrigerant loop above a freezing threshold to inhibit or prevent evaporator icing. The valve may be controlled to throttle flow during a parallel dehumidification mode and to fully open to minimize pressure drop during other operational modes, such as a cooling mode, heating mode, de-icing mode, and series dehumidification mode.
Vehicle vapor-injection heat pump system with controllable evaporator valve
2021-12-14
Patent
Electronic Resource
English
IPC: | B60H ARRANGEMENTS OR ADAPTATIONS OF HEATING, COOLING, VENTILATING, OR OTHER AIR-TREATING DEVICES SPECIALLY FOR PASSENGER OR GOODS SPACES OF VEHICLES , Anordnung oder Einbau der Heizung, Kühlung, Lüftung oder anderer Luftbehandlungsvorrichtungen für die Fahrzeugräume für Reisende oder Fracht |
Vehicle vapor-injection heat pump system with controllable evaporator valve
European Patent Office | 2020
|VEHICLE VAPOR-INJECTION HEAT PUMP SYSTEM WITH CONTROLLABLE EVAPORATOR VALVE
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