Patent ID: 8302873

Claim:
An air conditioner having a sleep driving mode that enables an individual sleeping operation during sleeping and includes a temperature reducing mode in which a set room temperature is reduced and a temperature increasing mode in which the set room temperature is increased, comprising: an end time setting unit for setting an end time at which the sleep drive mode is scheduled to be finished; a parameter changing unit configured to freely change parameters that determine a rate of temperature reduction with respect to time until a freely-settable first desired time is reached, and that determine a rate of temperature increase with respect to time until a freely-settable second desired time is reached, the rate of temperature reduction and the rate of temperature increase with respect to time during the sleeping operation being freely changeable on the basis of the changeable parameters; and a controller configured to receive the changed parameters from the parameter changing unit and to control the operation of the air conditioner so that room temperature is varied according to the rate of temperature reduction and the rate of temperature increase during the sleeping operation, wherein said controller computes a constant descending slope to obtain a constant rate of temperature reduction with respect to time by using desired time and temperature input from a temperature input device which is configured to receive time and temperature inputs from a user, and further computes a constant ascending slope to obtain a constant rate of temperature increase with respect to time by using desired time and temperature input from the temperature input device, the room being kept at a set temperature for a given time on the basis of the constant rate of temperature reduction and the constant rate of temperature increase, wherein the sleep mode operation is executed by the controller when a sleep mode driving mode button is pushed, wherein the controller is always causing the temperature to constantly increase or constantly decrease.