System and method for environmental management of a vehicle
First Claim
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1. A method for environmental management of a vehicle having a window, and a heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system including an HVAC control system operable to perform a plurality of functions, including controlling operation of:
- a fan system for generating an airflow, an air conditioning system for cooling the airflow, a recirculation system for controlling the amount of fresh and recirculated air introduced into the HVAC system, a mode system for controlling the direction of the airflow, and a heating system for heating the airflow, at least some of the functions being automatically controllable to effect defogging of the window, at least some of the automatically controllable functions being subject to manual overrides by a vehicle occupant, the method comprising;
determining certain environmental conditions for the vehicle;
determining when it is desirable to defog the window based on the determined environmental conditions;
determining a status of the manual overrides; and
implementing at least some of the automatically controllable functions of the HVAC system to effect defogging of the window when it is determined that none of the manual overrides has been selected.
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Abstract
A method for environmental management of a vehicle includes the steps of determining certain environmental conditions for the vehicle, and determining when it is desirable to defog the window based on the determined environmental conditions. A status of manual overrides is determined, and at least some automatically controllable functions of an HVAC system are implemented to effect defogging of a vehicle window when it is determined that none of the manual overrides has been selected.
40 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for environmental management of a vehicle having a window, and a heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system including an HVAC control system operable to perform a plurality of functions, including controlling operation of:
- a fan system for generating an airflow, an air conditioning system for cooling the airflow, a recirculation system for controlling the amount of fresh and recirculated air introduced into the HVAC system, a mode system for controlling the direction of the airflow, and a heating system for heating the airflow, at least some of the functions being automatically controllable to effect defogging of the window, at least some of the automatically controllable functions being subject to manual overrides by a vehicle occupant, the method comprising;
determining certain environmental conditions for the vehicle; determining when it is desirable to defog the window based on the determined environmental conditions; determining a status of the manual overrides; and implementing at least some of the automatically controllable functions of the HVAC system to effect defogging of the window when it is determined that none of the manual overrides has been selected. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- a fan system for generating an airflow, an air conditioning system for cooling the airflow, a recirculation system for controlling the amount of fresh and recirculated air introduced into the HVAC system, a mode system for controlling the direction of the airflow, and a heating system for heating the airflow, at least some of the functions being automatically controllable to effect defogging of the window, at least some of the automatically controllable functions being subject to manual overrides by a vehicle occupant, the method comprising;
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13. A method for environmental management of a vehicle having a windshield, a plurality of sensors for respectively sensing certain environmental condition of the vehicle, and a heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system including an HVAC control system operable to perform a plurality of functions, including controlling operation of:
- a fan system for generating an airflow, an air conditioning system for cooling the airflow, a recirculation system for controlling the amount of fresh and recirculated air introduced into the HVAC system, a mode system for controlling the direction of the airflow, and a heating system for heating the airflow, at least some of the functions being manually controllable by a vehicle occupant, and at least some of the functions being automatically controllable based on a preprogrammed algorithm using inputs from the sensors, the preprogrammed algorithm being configured to effect defogging of the windshield, the method comprising;
determining at least some of the certain environmental conditions for the vehicle; determining when it is desirable to defog the windshield based on the determined environmental conditions; determining a status of the manually controllable functions of the HVAC system; and automatically controlling at least some of the automatically controllable functions of the HVAC system according to the preprogrammed algorithm when it is determined that none of the functions are being manually controlled, thereby effecting automatic defogging of the windshield. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
- a fan system for generating an airflow, an air conditioning system for cooling the airflow, a recirculation system for controlling the amount of fresh and recirculated air introduced into the HVAC system, a mode system for controlling the direction of the airflow, and a heating system for heating the airflow, at least some of the functions being manually controllable by a vehicle occupant, and at least some of the functions being automatically controllable based on a preprogrammed algorithm using inputs from the sensors, the preprogrammed algorithm being configured to effect defogging of the windshield, the method comprising;
Specification