Adaptive vehicle climate control system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10279650-B2
Application number	US-201514606080-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 27, 2015
Priority date	Jan 27, 2015
Publication date	May 7, 2019
Grant date	May 7, 2019

Abstract

Vehicle climate control systems include heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for adjusting the vehicle cabin temperature. The HVAC system can deliver heated or cooled air to the vehicle interior to achieve a desired temperature inside the vehicle cabin. Some vehicles are equipped with secondary comfort features, such as heated or cooled seats, for additionally addressing occupant comfort. These features are typically stand-alone devices that function separately from the HVAC system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
automatically adjusting an occupant comfort level inside a vehicle during ECO mode of a climate control system of the vehicle, the step of automatically adjusting including modifying a temperature inside the vehicle and actuating at least two of an electrically heated/cooled seat, an electrically heated glass, and an electrically heated steering wheel,
wherein the step of modifying the temperature inside the vehicle includes offsetting the temperature by a predefined temperature offset value, and;
the predefined temperature offset value is a function of an ambient temperature, heating feature settings, a drive mode, and a sunload.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the step of automatically adjusting includes actuating each of the electrically heated/cooled seat, the electrically heated glass, and the electrically heated steering wheel.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the offsetting step includes deriving the predefined temperature offset value from the heating strategy of Table 1.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the offsetting step includes deriving the predefined temperature offset value from the cooling strategy of Table 4.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , comprising offsetting the temperature inside the vehicle by a predefined temperature offset value in response to a manual override of at least one of the electrically heated/cooled seat, the electrically heated glass, and the electrically heated steering wheel.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 , comprising offsetting the temperature by a first predefined temperature offset value if the ECO mode is ON and offsetting the temperature by a second predefined temperature offset value if the ECO mode is OFF.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the step of modifying the temperature inside the vehicle includes offsetting the temperature by a predefined temperature offset value according to a heating strategy established by Table 1, Table 2, and Table 3.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the step of modifying the temperature inside the vehicle includes offsetting the temperature by a predefined temperature offset value according to a cooling strategy established by Table 4, Table 5, and Table 6.

9. The method as recited in claim 6 , wherein offsetting the temperature includes deriving the predefined temperature offset value from the heating strategy of Table 1.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , wherein the predefined temperature offset value is further derived using Table 2 and Table 3.

11. The method as recited in claim 6 , wherein offsetting the temperature includes deriving the predefined temperature offset value from the cooling strategy of Table 4.

12. The method as recited in claim 11 , wherein the predefined temperature offset value is further derived using Table 5 and Table 6.

13. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein activating the at least two of the electrically heated/cooled seat, the electrically heated glass, and the electrically heated steering wheel reduces a demand on the climate control system.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Maranville Clay Wesley
• Jackson Kenneth J
• Gebbie James George

Classifications

• B60H2001/003

  Component temperature regulation using an air flow · CPC title

• B60H1/00971

  Control systems or circuits characterised by including features for locking or memorising of control modes · CPC title

• B60H1/00964

  Control systems or circuits characterised by including features for automatic and non-automatic control, e.g. for changing from automatic to manual control · CPC title

• B60H1/00878

  the components being temperature regulating devices · CPC title

• B60H1/00828

  Ventilators, e.g. speed control (B60H1/00864 takes precedence) · CPC title