Climate control head with fuel economy indicator
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsHalim Wijaya, Gerhard A. Dage, Wayne Frank Buescher, Christopher Mark Greiner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A climate control system having a control head including a display providing at least one comfort level indicator and a fuel economy indicator is provided. The comfort level indicator displays a plurality of comfort level settings corresponding to relative thermal comfort in all weather conditions. Each comfort level setting corresponds to a range of temperatures so that once a comfort range is obtained, the climate control system will be reluctant to consume additional energy, thereby maintaining or improving the current fuel economy state. The fuel economy indicator provides for direct communication of the impact of comfort level settings on fuel economy.
Claims15
A climate control system comprising:
- a climate control interface including at least one thermal comfort selector and a fuel economy impact indicator;
- and
- a controller electrically coupled to the climate control interface and configured to:
- receive input from the thermal comfort selector corresponding to a thermal comfort selector setting, and
- transmit an output to the climate control interface to adjust the fuel economy impact indicator instantly based upon the thermal comfort selector setting prior to adjustment of the climate control system;
- wherein the climate control interface displays a decrease in fuel economy using the fuel economy impact indicator when the input is indicative of an increase in a current thermal comfort selector setting in both an air conditioning mode and a heating mode and the climate control interface displays an increase in fuel economy using the fuel economy impact indicator when the input is indicative of a decrease in the current thermal comfort selector setting in both the air conditioning mode and the heating mode.
A method for operating a climate control system, the method comprising:
- receiving input from a thermal comfort selector corresponding to a thermal comfort selector setting;
- displaying a thermal comfort indicator corresponding to the thermal comfort selector setting;
- and
- displaying a change in a fuel economy impact indicator instantly based upon the thermal comfort selector setting prior to adjustment of the climate control system;
- wherein the fuel economy impact indicator indicates a decrease in fuel economy when the input is indicative of an increase in a current thermal comfort selector setting in both an air conditioning mode and a heating mode and the fuel economy impact indicator indicates an increase in fuel economy when the input is indicative of a decrease in the current thermal comfort selector setting in both an air conditioning mode and a heating mode.
A climate control head unit comprising:
- at least one thermal comfort selector configured to receive input indicative of a thermal comfort change request;
- at least one thermal comfort indicator, associated with the thermal comfort selector configured to indicate a current thermal comfort selector setting based upon the thermal comfort change request;
- and
- a fuel economy impact indicator configured to display the impact on fuel economy of the thermal comfort change request instantly based at least in part upon the current thermal comfort selector setting prior to adjustment of the climate control system;
- wherein the fuel economy impact indicator indicates a decrease in fuel economy when the input is indicative of a request to increase the current thermal comfort selector setting in both an air conditioning mode and a heating mode and the fuel economy impact indicator indicates an increase in fuel economy when the input is indicative of a request to decrease the current thermal comfort selector setting in both the air conditioning mode and the heating mode.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.