Patent ID: 6454178
Filing Date: 2002-09-24
Classification: B60H

Abstract:
In a multi-zone climate control system for a vehicle comprising a passenger seat occupancy detector at each of a plurality of passenger seats for generating a respective seat occupancy signal indicative of an occupancy condition of a respective seat, a plurality of control units, each of said control units associated with a respective passenger seat location for selecting desired climate settings for each said location, and a controller in operative communication with each control unit and each passenger seat occupancy detector, a method of operating the climate control system comprising the following steps:determining the occupancy status of each passenger seat as a function of said passenger seat occupancy detectors; controlling the climate at each occupied passenger location according to the desired climate settings for each said respective location; turning off each control unit at a respective unoccupied passenger location; when operating a respective control unit in an automatic mode, detecting a manual override of said automatic mode parameter settings; storing a transient thermal condition event associated with said manual override input; and adaptively modifying an automatic mode compensation coefficient in response to said manual override input as a function of said transient thermal condition event and said manual override.