Low Cost Electronic Air Conditioning System for Improved Fuel Economy 2013-36-0607
The Brazilian automotive market is growing, vehicle sales ranked in the 4th. global position only behind China, United States and Japan; more than 40% of Brazilian production are entry level vehicles.
The use of air conditioning systems in those basic vehicles are increasing due to being also considered as a safety device, besides its original thermal comfort function.
Since 2008 a partnership between Inmetro, CONPET and Petrobras established the adoption of an “energy seal” ranking of vehicles in respect to their fuel consumption; the newly introduced tax regime: Inovar-Auto establishes less taxation to more efficient vehicles.
This and other environmental concerns are demanding the reduction of CO2 emissions. Due to cost restrictions, the A/C systems installed in those vehicles, in most of the cases, are too simple and inefficient.
In order to reduce fuel consumption electronic controlled A/C systems where developed but its cost is higher than the simple systems because their construction are more complex and they use a separated A/C control module along with many sensors and actuators.
In this paper we describe the concept of a simplified electronic A/C system, with fewer changes to the compressor, and some parts delete, that is controlled by the existing Engine Control Module via a minimalist interface and control panel, obviating the need of a dedicated A/C control module.
