Patent ID: 7082990

Claim:
An air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle having a passenger compartment, said air conditioning apparatus comprising: an air conditioning case having at one end thereof an inside-air suction port for sucking inside air and an outside-air suction port for sucking outside air and at the other end at least a first air opening portion for blowing air toward a lower portion of the passenger compartment and a second opening portion for blowing air toward an inner surface of a windshield; a partition member for partitioning an interior of said air conditioning case into a first air passage extending from said inside-air suction port to said first air opening portion and a second air passage extending from said outside-air suction port to said second air opening portion; a blower for blowing air in said first air passage and said second air passage from said one end to the other end; a cooling heat exchanger disposed in said first air passage and said second air passage, for cooling air passing through said first air passage and said second air passage; a heating heat exchanger disposed in said first air passage and said second air passage at a downstream side of said cooling heat exchanger, for heating air passing through said first air passage and said second air passage; a temperature sensor disposed at a side of at least one of said first air passage and said second air passage, for detecting a cooling temperature of said cooling heat exchanger; adjusting means for adjusting a refrigerant amount flowing into said cooling heat exchanger; adjusting control means for comparing a cooling temperature detected by said temperature sensor and a set temperature and for controlling operation of said adjusting means; changing means for changing the set temperature according to a temperature of outside air; and signal generating means for generating a signal according to the temperature of outside air; wherein said changing means includes set temperature determining means for receiving the signal of said signal generating means and for changing the set temperature stepwise by two steps or more according to the temperature of outside air.