A Comparative Study of the Energy-Saving Controllers for Automotive Air-Conditioning/Refrigeration Systems

With the extensive application of air-conditioning/refrigeration (A/C-R) systems in homes, industry, and vehicles, many efforts have been put toward the controller development for A/C-R systems. Therefore, this paper proposes an energy-saving model predictive controller (MPC) via a comparative study of several control approaches that could be applied in automotive A/C-R systems. The on/off controller is first presented and used as a basis to compare with others. The conventional proportional-integral (PI) as well as a set-point controller follows. In the set-point controller, the sliding mode control (SMC) strategies are also employed. Then, the MPC is elaborated upon. Finally, the simulation and experimental results under the same scenario are compared to demonstrate how the advanced MPC can bring more benefits in terms of performance and energy saving (10%) over the conventional controllers.