Patent ID: 8783397

Claim:
An energy management system for a vehicle comprising: a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (“HVAC”) device to provide heating and cooling to an occupant compartment of the vehicle; a thermal storage device configured to provide heating and cooling to the occupant compartment of the vehicle; an electrical storage device; a controller configured to receive electrical power from an electrical generating device, the controller connected to the electrical storage device and the HVAC device and configured to store the electrical power in at least one selected from the group consisting of the electrical storage device and the thermal storage device; and a thermal storage temperature sensor connected to the controller that monitors available storage of the thermal storage device; wherein the controller is further configured to determine whether to direct the electrical power to the electrical storage device or the thermal storage device based on the available storage of the thermal storage device and, based on that determination, to direct the electrical power to either the electrical storage device or the thermal storage device.