Energy saving circulating system for vehicle heaters

Claim 1

An energy-saving, pressurized hot liquid circulating system to circulate hot liquid from a liquid-cooled vehicle engine through the vehicle's heater, said vehicle of the type having an electric storage battery to energize certain of the vehicle's accessories, and having a hot liquid circulating system of the type including a radiator, engine liquid jacket, and said heater, said system comprising: means to pump said hot liquid through said vehicle heater when said engine is turned off, said pump means receiving its driving power solely from said vehicle battery; conduit means coupling said vehicle heater to said liquid jacket, said pump means positioned in series with said conduit means intermediate said vehicle heater and said liquid jacket, said pump means being of the centrifugal type having a motivating impeller driven responsive to the rotation of a drive shaft of an electrical motor, means for magnetically coupling said motor shaft to drive said impeller, said magnetic coupling means adapted to drive said impeller without requiring said motor shaft to pass through said conduit, said impeller being mounted on an impeller shaft, said impeller having a base magnet attached thereto, said impeller being enclosed in a non-metallic casing, said casing having a protruding portion for receiving said base magnet of said impeller, said impeller shaft extending through said cylindrical magnet and said impeller; and means for mounting said impeller shaft entirely within said casing to enable rotation of said magnetic coupling means about the outer periphery of said protrusion to thereby shorten the lines of flux between said base magnet and said magnetic coupling means whereby, when said motor shaft rotates, it more effectively causes said base magnet to rotate; and means to control the operation of said vehicle fan and said pump means, said control means including an electrical relay, said relay operated responsive to the operating or non-operating of said engine, first and second normally closed contacts on said relay, said first contacts connected in series between said battery and said pump means, and said second contacts connected in series between said battery and said vehicle fan, said relay directing electrical current to said fan when said engine is non-operating, said control means further including relatively, non-resistive intermittenly operating switching means to control the speed of said vehicle fan when said second contacts are closed, in order to minimize power drain of said battery, said first contacts directing electrical current to said pump means to operate said pump means when said engine is non-operating.