Robert Boschgmbh

Aya Kozono

Armen Davtyan

An environmental control unit (ECU) such as a heat pump includes a housing having a divider panel. The divider panel is surrounded by a sidewall and segregates an interior space of the housing into an air-handling portion and a condensing portion. The ECU includes a blower disposed in the air-handling portion, a heat exchanger disposed in the air-handling portion, a compressor disposed in the condensing portion and a fluid circuit including a refrigerant line that connects the heat exchanger to the compressor. In addition, the ECU includes an electronics box that is mounted on the divider panel and houses a control board, the electronics box being provided with two independent modes of cooling. The first mode includes convective cooling via air flow generated by the blower, and the second mode includes conductive cooling via a cooling plate that is cooled by the refrigerant line.

Electronics cooling in an environmental control unit

An environmental control unit, such as an HVAC or heat pump unit, includes a housing which contains four main components: a blower which draws air into the housing via an air inlet and exhausts air from the housing via an air outlet; a first heat exchanger that exchanges heat through the air and is located between the air inlet and the blower; a second heat exchanger, which exchanges heat through water and is disposed in the second area of the housing; and a compressor. The environmental control unit having a predetermined set of parts can be arranged in multiple configurations to meet installation requirements, where configurations include air entering from the left side or, alternatively, from the right of the environmental control unit. The configurations utilize the same parts and provide front-facing access to fluid connections and the control board.

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Watertown, MA, United States of America

Aya Kozono