Patent ID: 6578771
Filing Date: 2003-06-17
Classification: B60H

Abstract:
An air conditioner for a vehicle having a passenger compartment, comprising:an air-conditioning case for defining a front air passage through which air flows at least toward an upper side of a front seat in the passenger compartment, and a rear air passage through which air flows toward a rear seat in the passenger compartment; a blower for blowing air into the passenger compartment through the front air passage and the rear air passage; an air-amount adjustment unit which adjusts an amount of air blown at least toward the upper side of the front seat in the passenger compartment; an opening/closing unit for opening and closing the rear air passage; air-amount determination means for determining an air-blowing amount of the blower; air-amount correction means for increasing the air-blowing amount determined by the air-amount determination means when the rear air passage is opened by the opening/closing unit; and target temperature calculation means for calculating a target temperature of air blown toward the front seat in the passenger compartment, wherein: the air-amount correction means sets an increase amount of the air-blowing amount to be larger when an amount of air blown to the upper side of the front seat is larger than a predetermined amount, than that when the amount of air blown to the upper side of the front seat is smaller than the predetermined amount; at a downstream end side of the front air passage, the air conditioning case has a face opening from which air is blown to the upper side of the front seat, and a foot opening from which air is blown to a lower side of the front seat; the air-amount adjustment unit is a mode door for opening and closing the face opening and the foot opening; in a face mode where air is blown from the face opening opened by the mode door, the amount of air blown toward the upper side of the front seat is larger than the predetermined amount; in a bi-level mode where air is blown from both of the face opening and the foot opening opened by the mode door, the amount of air blown toward the front seat is smaller than the predetermined amount; the face mode is set when the target temperature is lower than a first predetermined temperature; a foot mode, where air is blown from the foot opening opened by the mode door, is set when the target temperature is higher than a second predetermined temperature higher than the first predetermined temperature; and the bi-level mode is set when the target temperature is in an area between the first predetermined temperature and the second predetermined temperature.