Oil filled heater core
AssigneeToyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.
InventorsAlan K. Williams, Chad A. Barnes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A heater system for an electric vehicle that is void of engine coolant. The heater system can include an air duct having an opening into a passenger compartment of the vehicle and a heater unit attached to the air duct. The heater unit can have a self-contained quantity of oil within an oil reservoir and an oil channel in fluid communication with the oil reservoir. The oil channel can be located between a front wall and a back wall of the heater unit and the unit can also have an electric heating element at least partially within the oil reservoir. The electric heater unit can be operable to heat oil in the oil reservoir and thereby result in the oil flowing through the oil channel and heating the front wall and the back wall of the unit.
Claims17
A heater system for a motor vehicle comprising:
- an air duct having an opening into a passenger compartment of the motor vehicle;
- a heater unit attached to said air duct, said heater unit having a self-contained quantity of oil within an oil reservoir and an oil channel in fluid communication with said oil reservoir and located between a front wall and a back wall, said heater unit also having an electric heating element at least partially within said oil reservoir, said electric heating element operable to heat oil in said oil reservoir and result in said oil flowing through said oil channel and heating said front wall and said back wall, said oil flowing back to said oil reservoir upon cooling;
- said air duct operable for air to flow therethrough and over at least one of said front wall and said back wall and provide heated air to the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle.
A motor vehicle comprising:
- a passenger compartment, an instrument panel and an HVAC system, said HVAC system having an air duct, a fan, a heater unit, an air conditioning unit and a control unit, said HVAC system operable to provide heated and cooled air into said passenger compartment;
- said heater unit having a self-contained oil reservoir and oil channel, said oil channel in fluid communication with said oil reservoir, said heater unit also having an electric heating element located at least partially within said oil reservoir, said heater unit operable to heat oil within said oil reservoir, flow the oil through said oil channel while said fan forces air over said heater unit and provide heated air into said passenger compartment via heat transfer from said oil channel to the air forced over said heater unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.