Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Yoshinori Nakagawa

Tsutomu Wakitani

Akihito Kasai

Toshio Inoue

Hiroyuki Eguchi

Takahiro Ideguchi

Kouichi Asai

Yoshihiro Iijima

Kazufumi Muronoi

Junichi Eguchi

Tsutomu Hirano

Hiroyuki Kitani

Ariko Horie

Katsumi Maruyama

Keiichirou Bungo

A thermal demand priority type cogeneration system, is made operative for obtaining power output without thermal demand. When the temperature in a hot water tankis low, a heat request is output from a heat request generatorand thereby an engineis driven. When the temperature T higher than a predetermined temperature T, a first water supply instructing unitopens a valveand supplies water to the tankto decrease the water temperature T. When the water temperature goes down, thermal demand is generated, the engineis driven according to the heat request. So as to generate thermal demand, a discharge valvemay be opened when the water temperature T is at the predetermined temperature or higher. A second water supply instructing unitopens the valvewhen reserved water level in the tankgoes down. When the valveis opened, water is supplied and the water temperature goes down and thermal demand is generated. At a power failure of a commercial electric power system, thermal demand is generated forcibly.

Cogeneration apparatus

In a cogeneration system having a first power plant connected to an AC power feed line between a power network and an electrical load and a first internal combustion engine for driving the first power plant such that exhaust heat of the first engine is supplied to a thermal load, power supply from the first power plant to the power network is interrupted by turning off a switch installed in the feed line, when outage of the power network is detected and a second power plant is operated, such that outputs of the first and second power plants are supplied to the electrical load. With this, it becomes possible to respond to a commercial power network outage for preventing reverse flow of the power output by the cogeneration system into the power network and supplying as much electric power as possible to the electrical load.

Cogeneration system with first and second power plants

In a cogeneration system having a power plant that includes a generator and an internal combustion engine for driving the generator such that exhaust heat of the engine is supplied to a thermal load, there are provided a battery, a controller that controls operation of the thermal load, a main switch disposed to be operable by an operator, a microprocessor that controls operation of the power plant when the main switch is turned on by the operator, and an external terminal adapted to transmit an activation signal to the controller upon manipulation by the operator when the main switch is kept off. In the system, the microprocessor is operated by power supplied from the battery in response to the activation signal so as to activate the power plant. With this, even when the operator stays at a place away from the main switch, the power plant can be activated to supply power to electrical loads.

Cogeneration system

A cogeneration system comprising a generator connected to an AC power feed line between a power network and an electrical load and an internal combustion engine for driving the generator and for supplying its exhaust heat to a thermal load. The power supply from the generator to the power network is interrupted by turning off a switch installed in the feed line when an outage of the power network is detected. A battery for storing DC power is connected to an inverter circuit to invert the DC power to AC power, such that the inverted AC power of the battery and the output of the generator are supplied to the electrical load, thereby enabling the system to respond to a power network outage and preventing reverse flow of the power output by the cogeneration system into the power network while supplying as much electric power as possible to the electrical load.

In a cogeneration system having a generator unit that generates DC power, an internal combustion engine for driving the generator unit, a battery that stores DC power for starting the engine, and an inverter that inverts the DC power generated by the generator unit to AC power, there are provided a solar unit that generates DC power by converting radiant energy of sunlight into electrical energy and a DC/DC converter that boosts the DC power stored in the battery, such that one of the battery and the solar unit is connected to the inverter through the DC/DC converter, thereby enabling them to share the DC/DC converter and thus to make the structure simple.

A ground faulty interrupting function is returned to a normal standby state in a short time after a movable contact () tripped in detecting electrical leak is returned to a closed position. A tripping coil () which moves the contact () provided on an output line () to a shutdown position is included. A current transformer () is provided on a downstream of the contact (). A circuit () energizes the coil () when the leak current are detected. A reset signal forming circuit () outputs a reset signal to the gate signal forming circuit () when the contact () is returned to a connection position. The circuit () obtains power from the upstream side of the contact (). LED () is lit when the contact () is at the shutdown position, and LED () end display when the contact () is returned to the normal position.

Power supply apparatus

A generator apparatus can provide generated power fit for a connected battery, and even if a load voltage is not within a suitable range, when the load voltage is a certain level or more, the generator can provide power. A selectorselects a target voltage for controlling the output voltage of a rectifier. An output controllercontrols the rectifieraccording to the target. A load judgment sectionjudges the terminal voltage of a battery. When the terminal voltage is within an allowable range with respect to the target value, permission for output is given to the output controller. When the load voltage is not within the allowable range, an alarm is raised. Even when the alarm is raised, if a load voltage develops which is not less than a predetermined voltage lower than the allowable range, the batterycan be charged by forced-output.

Generator apparatus

An abnormality of a generator provided with a plurality of power supply units is easily detected. Each of the power supply units includes each of output windings Lto L, which are wound independently of each other around the single iron core, and each of rectifier circuitsto. The power supply units produce an integrated output power. Control meanstocontrol the rectifier circuits such that an output voltage agrees with a target voltage Vref. In a case where an added up power W becomes a power target value Wref, when the added up current I further increases, a power comparing sectionreduces the target voltage Vref to prevent the rectifier circuits from outputting power. Further, when the added up current I exceeds a current upper limit ILMT, a gate pulse is stopped.

Generator

An electric vehicle driven by a pair of left and right electric motors is provided. The vehicle includes a controller for controlling the start of the vehicle. The controller performs such control as avoiding brake drag caused by the operation of the electric motors before the elimination of the braking of a pair of left and right parking electromagnetic brakes.

Electric vehicle

The absence or shortage of a heat transfer medium can be detected without any time lag. While the medium is circulated through a water jacket and an exhaust gas heat exchanger which receives heat from the exhaust gas, heat generated by the engine can be recovered. A first sensor is provided at a waste heat recovering location in a circulation path of the medium. A second sensor is provided at a downstream side of sensor. When the medium is absent, a difference in measured temperature develops between sensor and sensor. A heat transfer medium shortage signal is outputted when the difference in the measured temperature between the first sensor and the second sensor exceeds a predetermined reference level.

Waste heat recovering apparatus for an engine

Since the starting of an engine at a lower temperature is troublesome, the temperature of the engine is measured by a sensor. When the measured temperature is lower than a reference temperature, the pump is first switched on for circulating a thermal medium. This permits the thermal medium to transfer heat of the hot water stored in a hot water storage tank to the engine, hence warming the engine, decreasing the viscosity of the oil, and preventing the generation of dew in the engine to ease the start up of the engine.

Engine waste heat recovering apparatus

A means for eliminating a frozen or near frozen state in a drain of the condensed water generated by the action of an exhaust gas heat exchanger is provided. The condensed water separated from the exhaust gas in a silencer ( ) is passed through a waste water trap provided with the joint ( ) and discharged to the outside. The joint ( ) also has a passage provided therein for circulating a heat transfer medium through an externally (separately) installed heat exchanger ( A). When the engine ( ) is started, it is judged, based on the temperature of the waste water trap or the water measured by a sensor ( ), whether the frozen state is present or not. When it is judged that the frozen state is present, a water pump is switched on for circulating the heat transfer medium through the waste water trap.

An exhaust gas released from the exhaust gas heat exchanger,is conveyed into the inlet of a bend,communicated to a silencer,. The exhaust gas mixed with the condensed water is upwardly passed as a mixture fluid through a passage,and forced into a first expansion chamber,. The mixture fluid is separated into the exhaust gas and the condensed water in the chamber,and conveyed downwardly in a passage,provided with a second expansion chamber,. While the exhaust gas is forced upwardly from the lower end of the silencer,, the condensed water is discharged downwardly. The condensed water is conveyed in the drain passage of a waster water trap and released to the outside.

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Saitama, Japan

Yoshinori Nakagawa