AIR-CLEANING DEVICE FOR EVAPORATOR OF VEHICLE AND CONTROL METHOD

摘要

An apparatus is disclosed which sterilizes an evaporator of an automotive HVAC system depending on whether the vehicle engine starts. The apparatus comprises: an engine start detector (160) tor detecting whether a vehicle engine starts as the engine start detector is connected to a power line, ignition-1, necessary for the engine start up: an ultraviolet lamp (130) that is installed adjacent to the evaporator and supplied with power output from a vehicle battery (70); a temperature sensor (140) installed adjacent to the evaporator (50) for sensing the temperature of the evaporator (50); a mode selection switch (150) for setting an automatic mode in which the UV lamp (130) is turned on/off or a continuous mode in which the UV lamp (130) is continuously turned on, according to the temperature of the evaporator (50) sensed by the temperature sensor (140), and a controller (110) for controlling the turning on/off of the UV lamp (130) according to the mode set by the mode selection switch (150), after the engine start detector detects the vehicle start-up, wherein the controller (110) turns on/off the UV lamp (130) according to temperature changes of the surface of the evaporator (50), sensed by the temperature sensor (140), when the mode is set to the automatic mode, and continuously turns on the UV lamp (130) when the mode is set to the continuous mode.