Bidirectional energy transfer systems and methods for providing enhanced household transient load support

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11945330-B2
Application number	US-202117492751-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 4, 2021
Priority date	Oct 4, 2021
Publication date	Apr 2, 2024
Grant date	Apr 2, 2024

Abstract

Systems and methods may coordinate and provide bidirectional energy transfer events between electrified vehicles and households or other structures, such as for supporting transient loads associated with the households/structures, for example. Vehicle information, driving habit information, and household information may be leveraged for providing enhanced transient load capability controls that permit increased appliance usage without increasing energy costs. The proposed systems/methods may particularly allow for bidirectional energy transfer support of high load appliances for increasing a user's comfort, pleasure, and convenience.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A bidirectional energy transfer system, comprising:
a traction battery pack; and
a control module programmed to generate a transient load increased usage setting recommendation for a home appliance based at least on an amount of excess energy available from the traction battery pack and an application use per unit time and measure of the home appliance,
wherein the application use per unit time and measure is representative of an amount of time the home appliance can be powered for achieving a user-desired setting change of the home appliance,
wherein the transient load increased usage setting recommendation is presented to a user on a user interface,
wherein the control module is further programmed to control a bidirectional energy transfer output of the traction battery pack for powering an increased usage setting of the home appliance in response to receiving an input signal indicating a selection of the transient load increased usage setting recommendation by the user.

2. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the control module is further programmed to calculate the amount of excess energy available from the traction battery pack based at least on a current state of charge of the traction battery pack and a total planned utilization of the traction battery pack.

3. The system as recited in claim 2 , wherein the control module is further programmed to calculate an increased energy load that can be provided by the traction battery pack for supporting an increased usage of the home appliance based at least on household energy usage information and the amount of excess energy available from the traction battery pack.

4. The system as recited in claim 2 , wherein the control module is further programmed to derive the application use per unit time and measure of the home appliance from a lookup table.

5. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the control module is a component of an electrified vehicle that is powered by the traction battery pack.

6. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the control module is further programmed to transmit an alert to the home appliance for automatically adjusting a setting of the home appliance or an alert to a user of the bidirectional energy transfer system for manually adjusting the setting of the home appliance.

7. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the control module is programmed to control the bidirectional energy transfer output from the traction battery pack to a structure for powering the increased usage setting of the home appliance.

8. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the home appliance is an air conditioning unit, a furnace, a hot tub, or a water heater.

9. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the transient load increased usage setting recommendation is in the form of one or more options available for prioritizing a duration and/or amplitude of power from the traction battery pack for powering an increased usage of the home appliance.

10. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the transient load increased usage setting recommendation is in the form of degrees lower or higher the home appliance can be set at for a specific amount of time.

11. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the transient load increased usage setting recommendations is in the form of a pressure increase/decrease that can be output by a pump of the home appliance for a specific amount of time.

12. The system as recited in claim 2 , wherein the total planned utilization of the traction battery pack is derived based on an amount of energy necessary for powering an electrified vehicle along a planned upcoming travel route, an amount of energy necessary for powering transient loads during bidirectional energy transfer events with a structure associated with the home appliance, an amount of energy necessary for maintaining a predefined range reserve of the traction battery pack, and an amount of energy necessary for offsetting a demand charge of a grid power source.

13. A method, comprising:
controlling, via a control module of a bidirectional energy transfer system, a bidirectional energy transfer output from a traction battery pack of an electrified vehicle to a structure that is separate from the electrified vehicle,
wherein controlling the bidirectional energy transfer output includes:
generating a transient load increased usage setting recommendation for a home appliance of the structure based at least on an amount of excess energy available from the traction battery pack and an application use per unit time and measure of the home appliance,
wherein the application use per unit time and measure is representative of an amount of time the home appliance can be powered for achieving a user-desired setting change of the home appliance;
displaying the transient load increased usage setting recommendation on a user interface;
receiving a signal indicative of a user selection of the transient load increased usage setting recommendation; and
controlling the bidirectional energy transfer output from the traction battery pack to the structure for supporting an increased usage setting of the home appliance in response to receiving the signal.

14. The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the structure is a household associated with the electrified vehicle, and the home appliance is an air conditioning unit or a furnace.

15. The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein the transient load increased usage setting recommendation in the form of degrees lower or higher the home appliance can be set at for a specific amount of time.

16. The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein controlling the bidirectional energy transfer output includes:
deriving the application use per unit time and measure of the home appliance; and
generating the transient load increased usage setting recommendation based on the application use per unit time and measure of the home appliance.

17. The method as recited in claim 13 , comprising:
commanding the home appliance to automatically adjust a setting of the home appliance; or
commanding an alert to a user of the bidirectional energy transfer system to manually adjust the setting of the home appliance.

18. The method as recited in claim 13 , wherein controlling the bidirectional energy transfer output from the traction battery pack to the structure is performed only when a difference between an amount of available energy from the traction battery pack and a total energy requirement of the structure exceeds a predefined threshold.

19. A bidirectional energy transfer system, comprising:
a traction battery pack; and
a control module programmed to generate a transient load increased usage setting recommendation for a home appliance based at least on an amount of excess energy available from the traction battery pack and an application use per unit time and measure of the home appliance, wherein the application use per unit time and measure is representative of an amount of time the home appliance can be powered for achieving a user-desired setting change of the home appliance,
wherein the transient load increased usage setting recommendation is presented to a user on a user interface in the form of degrees lower or higher the home appliance can be set at for a specific amount of time,
wherein the control module is further programmed to control a bidirectional energy transfer output of the traction battery pack for powering an increased usage setting of the home appliance in response to receiving an input signal indicating a selectio

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Salter Stuart C
• O'Gorman Ryan
• Phung Peter
• Howard-Cone Katherine

Classifications

• H02J7/82

  Control of state of charge [SOC] · CPC title

• B60L55/00 Primary

  Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements · CPC title

• B60L50/60

  using power supplied by batteries (in combination with fuel cells B60L50/75) · CPC title

• B60L53/63

  in response to network capacity · CPC title

• B60L53/665

  Methods related to measuring, billing or payment · CPC title