The ability of Hybrid powertrains to reduce fuel consumption in passenger vehicles is adversely impacted by belt-driven vapor compression air conditioners, most notably in city driving conditions. Electric compressors provide a beltless solution that enables engine-off air conditioner operation; however electrical energy usage of such systems is high because of parasitic losses of the battery charge/discharge cycle and losses in electrical and mechanical power conversion subsystems. In addition, electrically driven vapor compression systems continue to use refrigerants which are becoming more difficult to manage throughout a vehicle's life cycle. By comparison, a TE (thermoelectric) based climate control system offers solid state design and construction, no refrigerants and the ability of providing faster time to comfort. Further, the same system provides heat with 2 to 4 times the efficiency of PTC (positive temperature coefficient) heater systems. A proof of concept fractional scale TE device has been constructed and laboratory tested to validate the design concept. In the design, the historic low efficiency and high cost of TE based designs have been partially addressed by employing three recent advancements. First, a higher efficiency thermodynamic cycle is used to approximately double device efficiency over that of conventional TE systems. Second, the device configuration incorporates heat transfer and electrical resistance loss reduction technology that reduces material usage by about a factor of 6. Third, system integration and energy management algorithms have been improved to further increase system level efficiency.
Thermoelectric HVAC for hybrid vehicles
Thermoelektrische Heizungs-Lüftungs- und Klimaanlagen für Hybridfahrzeuge
2007
10 Seiten, 6 Bilder, 5 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Thermoelectric HVAC for hybrid vehicles
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