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US 11,142,040 B2Granted
Method and system for heating vehicle cabin with water-cooled alternator
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorRoss Dykstra Pursifull
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for heating a cabin of a vehicle using an alternator of the vehicle. In one example, a method may include operating in a first operating mode to heat a cabin of a vehicle, the first operating mode including shorting an alternator output of an alternator of the vehicle to ground, and closing a coolant valve positioned between a coolant system of an engine of the vehicle and an alternator coolant circuit.
Claims18
A method comprising:
- operating in a first operating mode to heat a cabin of a vehicle, the first operating mode including:
- shorting an alternator output of an alternator of the vehicle to ground;
- closing a coolant valve positioned between a coolant system of an engine of the vehicle and an alternator coolant circuit, the alternator coolant circuit flowing coolant heated by the alternator to a heater core of a cabin heater of the vehicle;
- and
- operating in the first operating mode responsive to detecting a request for cabin heating within a threshold period of time of a cold-start of the engine, the method further comprising operating in a second operating mode responsive to detecting an end to the first operating mode, the second operating mode including connecting the alternator output to an electrical load and opening the coolant valve positioned between the coolant system and the alternator coolant circuit.
2 more elements
An engine system of a vehicle comprising:
- an alternator electrically connectable to one or more electrical components of the engine system and fluidically connected to an alternator coolant circuit;
- a cabin heater including a heater core fluidically connected to the alternator coolant circuit;
- and
- a controller with computer readable instructions stored on non-transitory memory that, when executed during a first operating mode, cause the controller to:
- short an alternator output of the alternator of the vehicle to ground;
- close a coolant valve positioned between a coolant system of an engine of the engine system and the alternator coolant circuit;
- and
- operating in the first operating mode responsive to detecting a request for cabin heating within a threshold period of time of a cold-start of the engine, the instructions further causing the controller to operate in a second operating mode responsive to detecting an end to the first operating mode, the second operating mode including connecting the alternator output to an electrical load and opening the coolant valve positioned between the coolant system and the alternator coolant circuit.
5 more elements
A method comprising:
- operating in a first operating mode to heat a cabin of a vehicle with an alternator of the vehicle responsive to a request for cabin heating within a threshold period of time of an engine cold-start of the vehicle, the first operating mode including:
- shorting an alternator output of the alternator of the vehicle to ground, and
- closing a coolant valve positioned between a coolant system of the engine of the vehicle and an alternator coolant circuit, the alternator coolant circuit flowing coolant heated by the alternator to a heater core of a cabin heater of the vehicle;
- and
- operating in a second operating mode to heat the cabin of the vehicle with the coolant system of the engine responsive to determining that coolant exiting the coolant system of the engine is greater than a threshold temperature, the second operating mode including:
- connecting the alternator output of the alternator to an electrical load, and
- opening the coolant valve positioned between the coolant system of the engine of the vehicle and the alternator coolant circuit.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.