Cabin purge for vehicle ventilating and cooling system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11084353-B2
Application number	US-201715471773-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 28, 2017
Priority date	Mar 28, 2017
Publication date	Aug 10, 2021
Grant date	Aug 10, 2021

Abstract

A vehicle ventilating/cooling system may include at least one sun-load sensor arranged within the vehicle, and a controller configured to receive a sun-load signal indicating a sun-load level from the sensor and programmed to instruct at least one cooling component to conduct a purge of vehicle cabin air in response to the sun-load level exceeding a sun-load threshold.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An engine-off vehicle ventilating system, comprising:
at least one sun-load sensor arranged within the vehicle,
a controller configured to
receive a sun-load signal indicating a sun-load level from the sensor,
receive a vehicle engine status,
receive occupant sensing data indicative of at least one vehicle occupant,
receive a state of charge (SOC) of a vehicle battery, and
instruct at least one ventilating component to conduct a purge of vehicle cabin air in response to the vehicle engine status indicating that the vehicle has been off for a threshold amount of time, the sun-load level exceeding a sun-load threshold, and the SOC exceeding a SOC threshold, wherein the sun-load signal includes a voltage and the sun-load threshold is approximately 4 volts.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one seat sensor arranged within a seat of a vehicle and configured to transmit the occupant sensing data indicative of the presence of an occupant in the vehicle to the controller.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the controller is further programmed to determine whether occupant sensing data indicates a vehicle occupant in response to the occupant sensing data including a pressure exceeding a predefined weight threshold.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller receives the vehicle engine status from at least one vehicle electronic control module.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the controller is further programmed to instruct the component to purge the vehicle cabin air in response to the vehicle being inactive for at least the threshold amount of time.

6. A method, comprising:
receiving occupant sensing data indicative of at least one vehicle occupant,
receiving a vehicle engine status,
receiving a sun-load level from a sun-load sensor,
receiving a state of charge (SOC) of a vehicle battery, and
instructing at least one ventilating component to purge the vehicle cabin air in response to the vehicle engine status indicating that the vehicle engine has been off for a threshold amount of time, the sun-load level exceeding a sun-load threshold, and the SOC exceeding a SOC threshold, wherein the sun-load level includes a voltage and the sun-load threshold is approximately 4 volts.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising receiving a time since last purge instructing the ventilating component to purge the vehicle air in response to the time since last purge exceeding a purge threshold time.

8. A vehicle cooling system, comprising:
at least one seat sensor arranged within the vehicle for detecting an item on a vehicle seat,
at least one battery having a state of charge (SOC);
at least one sun-load sensor arranged within the vehicle and configured to produce a sun-load signal;
a controller configured to
receive seat sensor data indicating occupancy of the vehicle from the sensor,
receive the sun-load signal from the sun-load sensor,
receive vehicle engine status from at least one vehicle electronic control module,
receive the SOC of the battery, and
instruct at least one cooling component to conduct a purge of the vehicle cabin air in response to the engine status indicating that the vehicle engine has been off for a threshold amount of time, the sung-load level exceeding a sun-load threshold, the SOC exceeding an SOC threshold, and the seat sensor indicating occupancy of the vehicle.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Dearth Mark Allen
• Hoke Paul Bryan
• Karas Lawrence C
• Schaefer Eric Gerd
• Hallifax Timothy James
• Vogt Rainer
• Scheer Volker
• Wallington Timothy John

Classifications

• B60H1/00978

  Control systems or circuits characterised by failure of detection or safety means; Diagnostic methods · CPC title

• B60H1/00778

  the input being a stationary vehicle position, e.g. parking or stopping · CPC title

• B60H1/0075

  the input being solar radiation · CPC title

• B60Y2400/306

  Pressure sensors · CPC title

• B60H1/00742

  by detection of the vehicle occupants' presence; by detection of conditions relating to the body of occupants, e.g. using radiant heat detectors · CPC title