VEHICLE AIR CONDITIONER (VAC) CONTROL SYSTEM BASED ON PASSENGER COMFORT: A PROOF OF CONCEPT

Abstract

The air conditioning system (AC) in passenger cars requires precise control to provide a comfortable and healthy driving. In an AC system with limited manual control, the driver has to repeatedly change the setting to improve comfort. This problem may be overcome by implementing an automatic control system to maintain cabin temperature and humidity to meet passenger's thermal comfort. Therefore, this paper presents the development of a laboratory-scale prototype air conditioning control system to regulate temperature, humidity and air circulation in the cabin. The experimental results show that the control system is able to control air temperature in the range of 21 °C to 23 °C and cabin air humidity between 40% to 60% in various simulated environmental conditions which indicate acceptance for comfort and health standards in the vehicle. In conclusion, this method can be applied to older vehicles with reasonable modifications.