GB2336445A - Vehicle climate control system - Google Patents

Abstract

Functions, such as control of ventilation direction and flow, heating and cooling, and defrosting of windscreens are combined by the system to form operational groups to provide specific climate conditions which can be selected by the driver in a one-touch operation. The system detects environmental factors such as indoor/outdoor temperatures, windspeed, sunshine levels, battery status and vehicle occupancy and operates the selected operational group accordingly to provide the desired climate condition.

Description

2336445 A CLIMATE CONTROL SYSTEM In accordance with the present invention

there is described a climate control system for use within a vehicle, and more particularly a system where the driver of that vehicle can, through a single, one-touch operation, set vehicle climate through pre-determined operation of climate changing apparatus.

Vehicles, and in particular motor vehicles, have over recent years increasingly included sensors for a wide range of parameters along with operational equipment that can be "feedback" controlled. Such sensors include thermisters, etc, for temperature, wind speed and other factors, sensors within seating to determine vehicle occupancy, sensors to determine sunshine levels and other factors within the vehicle. Operational apparatus within a motor vehicle may be controlled by feedback include vent or flap angles through servo motors, fan speed or the ventilation systbm, airconditioning system and other equipment such as built-in seat heaters and window glass heaters for demisting/defrosting.

With such a wide range of equipment to be controlled, it will be appreciated that a modern driver of a vehicle can be easily distracted into adjusting such equipment whilst driving. Principally, such distraction is unsafe as the driver must avert their eyes from the road. Less significantly, such itinerant changes in the equipment may inhibit achievement of the - C) - 1 1 in 1 desired or required climate withi the vehicle expected by the occupant. It will be appreciated that the most efficient or economical control path to achieving the desired climate may be difficult for the occupant of the vehicle to appreciate.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a climate control system for a vehicle which allows more convenient and economic achievement of the desired climate within a vehicle through minimising the level of occupant interference with climate conditioning equipment.

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a climate control system for a vehicle. the system being arranged to control climat conditioning means within a vehicle for air temperature, visibility and ventilation, the system including a control element coupled to such conditioning means and to indicator means indicative of environmental factors, said control element defining a plurality of functional quotients grouped in operational groups for said conditioning means and said operational groups being defined by said indicator means, said operational groups through said functional quotients precipitating ongoing responsive operation of said conditioning means to achieve a required climate within a vehicle.

e The indicator means may be operator sensors and/or determined switches. These sensors may sense interior or exterior temperature within the vehicle, sunshine levels, wind speed both within the vehicle and as a result of vehicle speed, directional factors such as wind direction striking the vehicle so determining windward and leeward sides of that vehicle and/or incident sunshine upon the vehicle to determine shadow, battery status, vehicle occupancy and other relevant factors to climate within the vehicle.

The switches may indicate the required climate along with the Seasons, le. winter, spring, summer, autumn, or vehicle performance requirements ie. sport, touring, urban, or specific shutdown of individual climat conditioning elements.

The control element will typically include several predetermined operational groups and one of these groups will be defined by said indicator means upon initial operation of the vehicle in terms of the sensed environmental factors determined by the indicator means along with the operator set required climate for the vehicle. These operational groups may be dynamically adapted during vehicle operation and subsequently vehicle occupant set as a bespoke operational group of climate conditioning means functional quotients for that particular vehicle occupant.

The conditioning means may include ventilation fans, vents and ducts, airconditioning units, air or window glass heaters or other conditioning means for the motor vehicle climate.

The system may provide an indication to the occupant of a vehicle as to when the required climate is achieved or how close to achieving that climate the system is.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a graph illustrating various percentage factors against time for a vehicle without sensor feedback whilst Figure 2 is a graph illustrative of various factors against time with a climate control system and sensor feedback.

In the drawings, changes in the percentages of fresh to recycled air are depicted along with the percentage proportions of such air directed to 1,5 window defrost, to occupant's feet area and to vent height along with changes in ventilation fan speed and temperature within the vehicle, It will be appreciated that, upon entry to a vehicle, the occupant will wish to attain their preferred, required climate in terms of temperature and laton. Inherently, upon first entry to the vehicle,, this preferred venti 1 climate could generally not be present and so various climate conditioning elements within the vehicle will be used to attain the occupants desired climate. These conditioning elements will include, depending upon the vehicle specification, ventilation fans, heaters, ventilation ducting and vents, air-conditioning both to reduce air temperature and humidity, defrost/demist heaters within window glass and seat heaters, etc. Thus, it will be appreciated that a modern vehicle can include a wide range of climate conditioning apparatus and equipment. Such climate conditioning apparatus and equipment provides the vehicle occupant, le. the driver, with a wide range of adjustable parameters to achieve their desired climate. Furthermore, these climate conditioning elements can provide a significant drain, both upon the engine during use and the electrical system including the batterv.

As indicated above, the increased use of sensors within a motor vehicle has provided greater opportunities to control climate conditioning elements via a feedback route. Such feedh.ack will depend upon the vehicle occupant's desired or required climate conditions in comparison with those ambient environmental conditions about and within the vehicle. It will be appreciated that environmental conditions may alter dynamically during vehicle journey whilst the occupant's desired climate will not radically change but that the occupant may continuously adjust any controls for climate conditioning elements in the hope of achieving that desired climate as soon as possible. Unfortunately, such iterative and frequent adjustment of the climate conditioning equipment will be dangerous in that the driver's concentration on the road will be reduced and furthermore, the required climate may not be achieved in the most economic and convenient way in terms of occupant adjustments, etc, and possibly utilisation of equi 3 ipment.

There may be overshoot in terms of temperature or ventilation, etc. Thus, in accordance with the present invention, a climate control system is defined where the occupant of the vehicle determines the desired climate and the control system achieves that climate in the most convenient and economic was., le. one-button operation. It is implicit in achieving such a desired climate that the principal factors are time period to achieve the desired climate. existing ambient environmental conditions within and without the vehicle and the capacity of the climate conditioning elements in terms of response and drain upon the power system, le. engine and battery of the vehicle.

In the present invention. the control system includes a control element in which a plurality of functional quotients for each climate conditioning element is stored. These functional quotients are grouped into operational groups which subsequently are utilised to set operation of the individual conditioning elements. These operational groups may be static in terms of their one shot setting for each climate conditioning element. or could be sequenced such that successive operational groups are defined in order to transfer the environment conditioning elements from an initial state to the desired climate within the vehicle. Thus, the control element will include several operational groups selected by the occupant through a switch a indicator. The actual operational group of functional quotients determined by the control element for the conditioning elements in order to achieve the desired climate within the vehicle may differ depending upon the environmental factors determined by indicator sensors about and within the,,eh'cle. Thus, the occupant of the vehicle on entry will switch through the indicator to the desired climate which may be denoted by a descriptive legend such as hot and airy, cool and dry, etc, or a previously learned, occupant bespoke. climate state which is stored within the control element. The control element will then know the objective required climate to be achieved.

Once the objective required climate of the occupant of the vehicle is determined by the occupant throiigh a one button operation to set the control element, this control element will define the operational group or succession of such operational groups required to achieve the desired climate of the occupant in comparison with environmental factors. the capacity of the conditioning elements and the availability of power through the engine/battery of the vehicle, possibly after reviewing the expected performance required by the occupant, le. sport. touring, urban., etc, along with vehicle occupancy.

It will be appreciated that the indicator switching within the vehicle could incorporate, in addition to the vehicle occupant's required climate, a additional occasional use or long term switch indicators for the control element. Such switch indicators may include determination of a seasonal factor,. le. Winter, Summer. Furthermore, as indicated previously, the climate adjusting elements may draw significant power from the vehicle en ne and battery particularly during initial cold starting of the vehicle, 91 thus, the occupant may be able to set the control element in response to the expected or required driving performance of a vehicle, le. sport, touring, urban, etc. In such circumstances, the operational group defined for the conditioning elements mas, be appropriately adapted.

From the above, it will be appreciated that operation of the control element is determined by indicators within the vehicle. These indicators will include manually operated switches set by the occupant of the vehicle along with dynamic sensors coupled to the control element to allow adaptation of the operational group in terms of the functional quotient included within them to achieve the desired required climate for the occupant. The switches can take any appropriately indicative manner, thus rotary switches, toggle switches or similar devices may be used.

The sensors coupled to the control element can determine a wide range of environmental parameters about and within the vehicle. Thus, the sensors may determine interior and exterior temperature, sunshine levels. wind speed,, le. both environmental and as a result of vehicle speed, environmental directional factors, ie. wind direction, sunshine incidence angle and therefore shadow, etc, engine temperature, battery status and vehicle seat occupancy. In such circumstances the control element can through appropriate determination of initial starting conditions of the climate within the vehicle determine the best strategy in terms of convenience, climate conditioning component capacity and power drainage to achieve the required climate within the vehicle.

The control element monitors as indicated., le. switches and sensors, periodically in order to define the plurality of functional quotients for each climate conditioning element. However, and inherently, it is an objective of the present invention to provide one-touch operation so switch indicators are monitored at wider time period gaps in comparison with sensors as it will be appreciated that the occupant of the vehicle will generally not change the required or desired climate as often as environmental factors. Furthermore, different sensors may be monitored over different time periods and spacing to achieve most efficient indication of the environment and operation of the vehicle.

From the above, it will be appreciated that the control element adjusts the initial vehicle climate to the required vehicle climate through a strategy 1 1 1 1 1 - levels. These climate of various climate conditioning element functionality conditioning elements as indicated can include fans,, vents/ducts, airconditioning systems and heaters. The actual operation of the control element may be through a fuzzy lo c strategy based upon initial 91 operational groups stored within the control element. In such circumstances, the most appropriate operational group will be determined by the control element upon start up and then subsequently altered, or different operational groups of functional quotients for each conditioning element defined, in order to achieve the required climate within the vehicle.

In addition to iterative, unsafe switch operation by a vehicle, an inefficiencv within a previous system was the inherent overshoot in climate, eg. too high a temperature, implicit with manual variation of the cl yn 1 1 imate 1,3 conditioning elements. Such overshoot requires firstly too great a demand upon the enginelbattery capacity to achieve the actual required climate of the occupant and then subsequently requires additional vehicle energy and battery power to diminish such overshoot to the required climate. The present control element avoids such overshoot and so can achieve more efficient utilisation of the engine and battery within a vehicle along with the climate conditioning elements.

Figures 1 and 2 of the drawings depict respectively functional responses of the present climate control system in Figure 1 without indicator sensor feedback and in Figure 2 with such sensor feedback to control the climate conditioning elements. Thus, Figure 1 illustrates a simple predefined operational group strategy of functional quotients for each climate conditioning element in order to achieve the operator determined required climate within a vehicle. Thus, initially, all the air circulating, le. 100 %, is fresh and drawn externally from the vehicle whilst subsequently the recirculated percentage rises to 90 % in order to diminish the power requirements of the heaterlair-conditioning system. Furthermore, fan speed is gradually ramped to its maximum, ie. 100 % to peak consistently with the recirculated air percentage. As there is no feedback sensor control it will be noted that the defrost level, ie. a percentage of air directed to window glass for visibility purposes remains zero whilst the proportions of airflow directed to the occupants' feet area and vent height are varied over time to achieve the desired environment within the vehicle.

Figure 2 indicates a climatecontrol system in which sensor feedback is used to adjust climate conditioning elements. Thus, initially and consistently, 90 % of the air is fresh, ie. externally derived, whilst 10 % is recirculated from within the vekwle cabin. Furthermore, the fan is subject to delayed activation in order to &How temperature altering conditioning elements such as heaters or air-conditioning units to become fully operational before air circulation substantially commences. Air temperature similarly is not substantially altered until a significant time period has elapsed. In the scenario depicted in Figure 2, it will be noted that the proportion of airflow directed to window defrost, an occupant feet area and vent height are significantly different to those depleted in Figure 1. Such variation is due to feedback sensing of a frost condition such that the climate control system directs substantially all airflows to the defrost action whilst feet and vent areas only receive such flows at later stages. Once window defrost is complete, the airflow directed to such activity is reduced to negligible amounts with substantially all of the remainder of the airflows divided substantially between the feet area and vent height. It will be noted that the feet area receives the bulk of airflows as heated air c,enerall-,- rises whilst if a cooling effect is required an inverted situation may occur where cool denser air is generally propelled through the vent height system.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the climate alterations depicted in Figures 1 and 2 are purely illustrative and it is the desired required climate at the end of a time period along with the approach to achieve that required climate which is the objective of the control element and so the present climate control system. This required climate is set by a simple one-touch switch operation from the occupant of the vehicle and so is safer

Claims (8)

1. A climate control system for a vehicle, the system being arranged to control climate conditioning means within the vehicle for air temperature, visibility and ventilation, the system including a control element coupled to such conditioning means and indicator means indicative of environmental factors, said control element defining a plurality of functional quotients grouped in operational groups for said conditioning means and said operational groups being defined by said indicator means, said operational groups through said functional quotients precipitating ongoing responsive operation of said conditioning means to achieve the required climate within a vehicle.

2. A system as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the indicator means includes manual switches and/or sensor elements, the indicator means being singularly or one-touch operable to control the control element in order to define the required operational group or groups

3. A system as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the manual switches are arranged to indicate to the control element the desired climate for an occupant of a vehicle andlor the season, le. winter, summer, spring, autumn, and/or vehicle performance expected or desired, le. sport, touring, urban, etc.

A system as claimed in Claim 2, wherein the sensor elements are arranged to determine temperature. either interior or exterior, and/or sunshine level and/or wind speed, either ambient or due to vehicle motion andlor battery state and/or engine temperature and/or vehicle seat occupancy.

A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the control element is arranged to adapt said operational groups of said functional quotients in order to achieve the required climate within the vehicle.

6. A system as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the conditioning means includes a ventilation fan and/or vents andlor airflow distributive ducting and/or an air-conditioning unit andlor heater means for airflows.

A climate control system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

8. A motor vehicle including a climate control system as claimed in any preceding claim.

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