At the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Webasto introduced a combined heating and cooling system for Class 8 trucks that costs less than generator-based auxiliary power units (APU), even though it’s limited to heating and cooling alone.
Webasto is combining its Air Top 2000 forced-air heater and BlueCool Truck air conditioner into one package, dubbed the Complete Cabin Climate Comfort Control solution, or C5 truck package for short.
The two units are now available as a complete system for cooling and heating sleepers without depending on power from an idling diesel engine, said Don Kanneth, gm of the heavy duty division at Webasto.
“The cooling component of C5 Truck, BlueCool Truck, is charged or frozen during the day while the truck is running,” he explained. “At night, the patent-pending BlueCool cold storage unit provides a source of cold, dehumidified air to the bunk area with no further use of a powered air-conditioning device -- moving the air with four small fans powered by only small amounts of electricity from the existing vehicle batteries to circulate chilled air from the cold storage unit and heat exchanger installed in the truck sleeper cabin.”
Pushed by four small air distribution fans, the cold air will keep the bunk area cool for 8 to 10 hours in most ambient conditions, Kanneth said.
The Air Top 2000, by contrast, is a forced-air heater that uses diesel fuel from the vehicle’s tank to warm the interior – but only at 1/20th of a gallon of fuel per hour, much less than an idling engine’s typical 1.2 gallon per hour consumption rate, he said.
