A senior design project: Heating and cooling system for car's interior

Abstract

This paper describes the design and implementation of a senior project involving a car heating and cooling system. During the summer and winter times, for cars parked outside, the interior temperature can become very high or very low causing discomfort for the driver and passengers. Therefore a device is needed to keep the vehicle interior at comfortable temperatures while standing on the parking lot or on the driveway. The goal of this project was to build a light weight compact car heater and cooler. The car heating and cooling system allows car users to maintain a reasonable temperature while sitting at home or in a parking lot. The designed system can fit in a back window. The system runs using a 12V DC power source powered through a solar panel that is mounted on the back window of the vehicle. This location was chosen because the exposure to light is greater in the rear and allows the solar panel to recharge faster and more efficiently. All components used in this system are rated 12VDC, with the exception of the microcontroller; an additional 5V DC regulator is used to power the Arduino microcontroller. Using a thermistor, the microcontroller tracks the temperature inside a vehicle. When a high temperature (i.e. temp > 70°F) condition is detected by the thermistor, the microcontroller l enable s a power relay to apply power to both the fan and the cooling element, based on a peltier and heat sink. This process continues until the temperature is within the specified range (i.e. 66°F ∼ 70°F) or until user disables the system. In the same manner, when a low temperature (i.e. temp < 66°F) is detected by the microcontroller through the thermistor, a power relay is enabled to apply power to both the fan and the heating element, also based on a peltier and heat sink. This process continues until the temperature is within the specified range (i.e. 66°F ∼ 70°F) or until user disables the system. As an additional feature, an air freshener pump is also included in the system that can be activated at 30 minute intervals and will continue until user disables the system. All features and temperature measurements are tracked and displayed on the LCD which is connected to the Arduino microcontroller. The paper covers the details of the design of hardware and software components of the system. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2014.